Question about Fusion vs. Paralles vs. Boot Camp

[astrostu]

I ordered a MacPro this morning with the base hard drive (320 GB). I'll also be getting two 500 GB drives. I plan on using one of the 500 GB drives for the OS, apps, and most of my every-day data. The other 500 GB will be a Time Machine backup.

The 320 GB drive I'd like to partition into two images, one being 275 GB and the second being the balance (35-40 GB I'm guessing). Onto the smaller partition, I was planning on installing Windows for Boot Camp purposes.

My question is, can I also run Fusion or Parallels off of that Boot Camp Windows partition? Or do the virtualization programs create/require their own "file" that houses the Windows install?

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

I personally would advise AGAINST using your Bootcamp install in Parallels or Fusion. (though they give you an option to)

Reason: If for some reason either Virtual machine crashes - it may corrupt your Bootcamp partition - for good.

Bootcamp is best if you NEED the processing power it affords you - otherwise - Parallels or Fusion will work just fine - and they do NOT need their own file/partition/directory in the manner I believe you're thinking. (like Bootcamp does) They run as an application within OSX - and have an OS file (your windows operating system) which is super easy to backup / and restore.

With either virtualizer - you can drag and drop files between both OSes with ease - easier likely then an external drive and bootcamp/OSX.

I've pretty much dumped bootcamp since using Parallels. Haven't fired bootcamp up in months now.

 

[astrostu]

Thanks for the info.

 

[R.Youden]

Also it depends on which version of Windows you are using. Tests have shown that Parallels is better for XP, whilst Fusion if better for Vista. Personally I use Fusion after Parallels became incredibly buggy on me.

 

[SaSaSushi]

I personally would advise AGAINST using your Bootcamp install in Parallels or Fusion. (though they give you an option to)

Reason: If for some reason either Virtual machine crashes - it may corrupt your Bootcamp partition - for good.

While I agree that this is a compelling reason not to use Parallels or Fusion with the Boot Camp install I am doing so and have found Fusion to be much more stable using BC than VMs for some reason. Fusion has crashed a few times but I've yet to damage the BC install. I guess I'm lucky.

I prefer using BC because I don't use extra HDD space with a VM and one install of Windows is more than enough for me.

 

[aaronw1986]

While I agree that this is a compelling reason not to use Parallels or Fusion with the Boot Camp install I am doing so and have found Fusion to be much more stable using BC than VMs for some reason. Fusion has crashed a few times but I've yet to damage the BC install. I guess I'm lucky.

I prefer using BC because I don't use extra HDD space with a VM and one install of Windows is more than enough for me.

I use bootcamp and fusion...it doesn't take up extra space...they share the partition.

 

[richard.mac]

if you want to game use boot camp. if you dont need to game and want to only use windows apps like IE, excel, outlook use parallels/fusion. if you want to game and use windows apps either use boot camp only or both boot camp and parallels/fusion.

 

[Vapor]

All I need to run in windows is explorer 6.0 or better. what would be best for that.

 

[boast]

All I need to run in windows is explorer 6.0 or better. what would be best for that.

a VM would be better. saves the hassle of booting back and forth

 

[jhande]

Agree with the previous comments wrt running Parallels/Fusion on the Bootcamp partition.

Having said that, I bought Parallels initially and was reasonably satisfied until the last iteration, which I found buggy, and the default (default!) 'integration' with OS X a complete travesty of design, causing quite a bit of messing around before I figured out how to 'de-integrate' Parallels and OS X.

I've had a couple of times where Parallels barfed up my VM, causing a reinstall. To be fair, tho', that didn't happen with Parallels 3.

Being fed up with Parallels, I bought Fusion. Much nicer. Even if the VM crashes, no corruption of the VM. Best of all, no default stupid integration with OS X. Unless I do something actively, the VM is sandboxed from the rest of the system. Highly recommended.