Parallels Installed, Now want to use Boot Camp too

[thowie]

Been using Parallels and love it. Now that I've upgraded to Leopard, I'd like to try Boot Camp. Some of the PC games run VERY slow in Parallels, so thought I'd give Boot Camp a try and see if it might resolve the issue.

My question is, how can I accomplish installing Boot Camp without having to have two separate XP operating systems or without wiping out my already installed XP and programs?

I see with Parallels you can use Boot Camp, but it looks like this is done when your first setting up your Parallels. I already have it and don't want to reset it up.

Does this make sense? If this is possible, can you send me in the right direction for step by step instructions. Thanks for any help I can get.

 

[Khoji]

Just use the Boot Camp application in Leopard to create a new partition for Windows and then install Windows again, using the drivers disc you create with the Boot Camp application. (You can't transfer a Parallels virtual machine to a Boot Camp installation) You will have to activate Windows again but that should not be a problem.

However, DON'T try to set up a Parallels virtual machine to access your Boot Camp installation. It will be much slower and less stable than a normal Parallels virtual machine and experience teaches that the risk of destroying your Boot Camp installation is very high. Parallels has completely destroyed my Boot Camp partition three times and I am not going to try again -- I now regard this function as non-existent, for me at least it is just too dangerous to use. Even if it doesn't hose your Boot Camp installation it may cause problems because it seems that Parallels actually changes the Windows code to "play nice" with Parallels. I can't confirm this but several people have written it and the problems I had in Windows after setting up Parallels access to the Boot Camp partition make me tend to believe it.

Also remember that you are going to need quite a lot of hard disk space for Boot Camp -- in addition to the operating system you also need space for your data, because Windows can't access Mac hard disks.

 

[thowie]

So I understand this correctly, with what your suggesting, I will now have Parallels/Windows taking up space AND Boot Camp/Windows taking up space. Is this correct? How much hard drive space will all of this take? Will I be able to access my data via Boot Camp to Parallels, Parallels to Boot Camp?

Thanks

 

[Hugh Watkins]

So I understand this correctly, with what your suggesting, I will now have Parallels/Windows taking up space AND Boot Camp/Windows taking up space. Is this correct? How much hard drive space will all of this take? Will I be able to access my data via Boot Camp to Parallels, Parallels to Boot Camp?

Thanks

keep your VM on external hard disks

I am not getting
OS 10.5 yet

Hugh W

 

[Alicia]

Hello,

we don't support converting existing VM into a bootcamp. But I suppose you can somehow do it with some exterior software.
If you use bootcamp and Parallels independently they won't see each other so they won't be integrated.

Best regards,
Alicia.

 

[Eru Ithildur]

Acronis True Image might hold your answer.

Use Acronis to back-up Parallels. Restore it to BC, and install the BC drivers. If everything is working fine, go ahead and delete the Parallels VM.

 

[Khoji]

So I understand this correctly, with what your suggesting, I will now have Parallels/Windows taking up space AND Boot Camp/Windows taking up space. Is this correct? How much hard drive space will all of this take? Will I be able to access my data via Boot Camp to Parallels, Parallels to Boot Camp?

That's correct. You can save space by installing your virtual machines on external hard disks but the Boot Camp partition must be on your main drive, the same drive that OS X boots from. I think a Parallels VM can access the data on a Boot Camp drive but Windows in Boot Camp can't see your Parallels virtual drives or your Mac drives and partitions -- all the data accessed by Windows in Boot Camp must either be on the Boot Camp partition or on external hard drive partitions formatted as NTFS or FAT32.

Parallels Virtual machines take up less space because if you use their variable-size virtual hard drives (recommended) they only actually occupy the amount of space required for the data they contain, the empty space is created on the fly as needed, up to the maximum size you set (32GB by default). The Boot Camp partition will occupy its full size -- so you will need enough space for the version of Windows you have chosen, plus breathing space for the paging file (Windows' virtual memory, you should plan at least 2-3 GB for this), plus space for additional applications etc. plus space for your data files, unless you plan to use an external hard drive.

 

[thowie]

WOW! I'm so new to this that I'm totally confused. Maybe what I should be asking is: if I have programs that run REALLY slow on Parallels should I use Boot Camp instead. I really like Parallels and being able to switch OS EASY. But I do not want to have two seperate XP's and have some files under Boot Camp and some under Parallels. Am I being a total dits and not getting any of this.

 

[Khoji]

Maybe what I should be asking is: if I have programs that run REALLY slow on Parallels should I use Boot Camp instead.

That's possible - this will apply in particular for games and for any programs that make extensive use of the graphics card or multimedia features. For example Adobe Captivate just (a program for capturing "screenshot movies" of programs to make interactive demos) runs in a Parallels VM in Vista but it's very very sluggish. With simple programs like word processors you won't see all that much difference. However, the current Intel Macs are some of the best computers there are for running Windows directly -- for example the MacBook Pro was recently tested as the fastest Vista laptop available -- so it is really worth doing.

I really like Parallels and being able to switch OS EASY. But I do not want to have two seperate XP's and have some files under Boot Camp and some under Parallels.

If you really want to avoid two separate installations you're going to have to install Windows in Boot Camp and see if you can feel happy with accessing your Boot Camp installation in Parallels and then eventually delete your current Parallels virtual machine. Some people appear to be OK with it -- I can only say that I wasn't, not at all. Performance in the Parallels access to the Boot Camp partition was subjectively much worse than the Parallels virtual machine and three times I ended up with an unusable Windows on my Boot Camp partition. As a result I now have NO Boot Camp partition because my Boot Camp beta has expired on Tiger and I can't update to Leopard yet because Parallels has not yet released a Leopard-compatible version.