I've tried the Windows version for a few days and I'm very impressed with the performance. I plan to buy it to replace VPC2004. I just have a few questions and hope I can get answer from someone more experienced here: 1. I use a dual core laptop as my main computer, so HD space is always an issue for me. If I save virtual HD into compressed NTFS partition, will it affect performance? Does anyone have any rough figure? 2. I've had many VPC HD image, which took me a lot of time to create. I noticed the FAQs mention image conversion using Ghost or True Image. Have anyone done any test on that? Which software do you recommend? 3. I plan to buy a MacBook Pro later this year and will use the Mac version then. Does it use the same virtual HD format as on PC?
I have answer for question 3 - HDD image format is the same for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X primary OSes and could be easily transferred between systems and reused.
Thanks for your answer. At least I know my work from now won't be wasted if I move to MacBook Pro later.
Parallels a big winner! For my question 1, I did some test myself. Firstly, I noticed Parallels virtual image is significant smaller than VPC's. A 3.1GB C drive occupys 3.2 GB under VPC, 2.2 GB if compressed. But it only occupys 1.9GB under Parallels without compression. Parallels must have done some internal compression. So a normal Paralles image already saves more space for me than a compressed VPC image. So hard disk space is certainly no longer a concern for Parallels. I then compressed Parallels image, 1.9GB further reduced to 1.2GB. A huge space saving! So how about performance? I did some test on Win 2000 SP4 and Win XP SP2 guest systems, and didn't see any noticeable slow down in performance. I don't have any bench results to show you, but I trust my feel. By the way, when I ran Win XP SP2 under VPC, I always turned-off all the visual effects (back to Win 2000 look) in order to get usable speed. Under Parallels, I just use the default XP setting, and everything is still so much faster. OK, Parallels has got my heart. I'm going to place my order later today. It's my habit to always support the best software.
