I'm just now setting everything up in parallels and I'm debating between using boot camp or the normal virtual machine. My issue is that with boot camp you can actually access the files that are in the windows partition. Is there a way to access the files that are in the HDD file? And is there a way to install windows using the normal virtual machine method, but instead of using a HDD file, you use a disk partition? And finally, has anyone ever seen the HDD file become corrupt? I just don't want to turn on my computer one day and not be able to access any of my files in windows, when the only reason I'm using windows is to access work related data that's pretty important. Thanks!
Just use both... It's easy. Set-up BootCamp, then set-up Parallels to use the BootCamp partition. Never seen a .hdd file get corrupted, I have heard of it happening though. Yes, you can access a .hdd from the Mac, but typically once you access it it does not boot. Just use shares.
I was using it with boot camp, but if you run boot camp using parallels, and then run a normal parallels installation, you'll noticed a huge performace increase on the paralells install. Also, I like the ability to suspend the windows OS for fast access when I go back to work or just need something out of my corp email. Is there a program that will allow you to see the files that are in the HDD file?
Now THAT would be pretty cool, indeed. I'm not aware of any such tool and it's unclear to me whether Parallels even shares their .hdd file structure with 3rd parties (perhaps they do. I just don't see anything on the site about it). Microsoft and VMWare do (details mentioned on their sites), which is why they each have tools which can import the other's images. Parallels apparently makes use of them, too, since Transporter can import Virtual PC and VMWare images. The others, however, cannot import Parallels images (at least based on what I see on their sites), suggesting that the .hdd format remains closed. I suppose that given the image file format details, one could develop a tool for browsing the internal file system. Has anyone come across any tools like this? For any brand of virtual disk image? I sure haven't.
