virtual machines vs. boot camp

Trisha K wrote:
am i right in saying that virtual machines are probably the easiest way to back up, restore, or move your windows os to another computer?

whereas boot camp is great but you need some advanced program to clone your partition?

just considering losing my boot camp partition in favor of Fusion or Parallels.

any advice receives the biggest thanks and stars!

😉

Backup and restore of Windows is the same whether you are running Windows in a VM or natively using Boot Camp. If you already have Windows installed in its own partition via Boot Camp, why don't you install Parallels or Fusion then tell Parallels or Fusion to use your Boot Camped Windows installation as the virtual OS.

This way you have the advantages of both mechanisms. If you want to run Windows natively you can and if you want to rum Windows using your VM you can, and you can do this interchangeably. Both mechanisms use the same installed Windows so if you change or create a document in Word when in either your VM or booted natively you are accessing and changing the same file. If you install an application when in either your VM or when booted natively, you can run the application whether in your VM or booted natively via the Boot Camp partition.

And, if you already have your Windows installed natively you don't need to do another installation to use it in Parallels or Fusion.

Trisha K wrote:
yes, thank you.

i am just thinking that if turn my boot camp partition into a vm then i can reclaim some space AND run it off my external drive, which would probably let it run on another computer too.

last question can Fusion and Parallels be installed on the same system (obviously only one of them would be dealing with the vm).

i have fusion, but i want to use the new Parallels 6. When Fusion comes out with a new version, i may want to dump Parallels and switch to the new fusion.

is that okay for my system?

thanks a ton for your time!

😉

I'm sorry but I don't understand what you are saying with respect to reclaiming some space and run it off my external drive. A Windows installation takes similar space regardless of whether or not it is installed using Boot Camp or in a VM. The difference is when installed using Boot Camp you partition part of your hard drive for Windows and your data. If you install Windows in a VM a file is created on your hard drive to hold Windows and your data.

If you mean you want to install Windows on an external drive using Boot Camp, Windows won't boot from an external drive. If you search this forum there are posts describing how to install Windows on your internal hard drive and OSx on your external drive. But I have no experience doing that.

When I was evaluating Parallels and Fusion I downloaded and installed both their respective free versions. I only installed Windows on one VM at a time for testing. I don't know if you can install Windows in two different VMs or not. It should work but will take a lot of disk space and will require you to activate Windows twice (Microsoft license issue). FWIW I decided to stick with Fusion.

Message was edited by: BobTheFisherman

I know a few people who have "gone pure virtual". Their primary Windows computer is a virtual computer. for them, getting a new PC is simple. They buy the hardware, strip it down to the bare minimum OS, install the virtual environment of their choice, and copy their current virtual PC to the new computer. No need to worry about hardware compatibility, no re-install...

This solution is not for everyone, but it does make some things much easier. You want to make a full backup of your computer? Shutdown the virtual machine and copy the files to another location. Yeah, there are minor drawbacks, but for the folks I know who are doing it, those are non-issues. The easy portability of their primary environment to new hardware is more critical to them.

I have considered doing this myself, especially now that Windows 7 supports booting from VHD's. The main reason I haven't done this is that I don't feel like re-building my Windows 7 environment I currently have built under Boot Camp. It is just too easy to use VMWare Fusion or Parallels 6 to boot into that environment virtually. I don't remember the last time I booted my Windows 7 partition native, it's been a few months. I'm even getting to the point where I don't boot into my virtualized Windows environment every day.

Trisha K wrote:
Wow, so i tried that Parallels Desktop 6 thing -- BIG MISTAKE -- I will never touch Parallels software again. It manipulates your Windows 7 Boot Camp partition beyond repair.

if one must, go with Fusion.

Parallels was so bad that I had to delete my boot camp partition and rebuild it fresh.

Trying to get a refund from Parallels is like dental surgery.

Big BIG mistake!

Apple knows what they are doing. Boot Camp 4 life!

Really? I have been using Parallels since I bought my MacBook Pro 3 years ago. I got a bundle deal which included the MBP, Windows XP Pro, & Parallels v3. I've purchased the upgrades to v4, v5, and now v6 or Parallels. I have not seen anything that Parallels has manipulated my Windows (now Windows 7) "beyond repair".

Heck, I've even used Sun's "Virtual Box" (now owned by Oracle), and VMWare Fusion on my MBP. They each have their strengths & weaknesses. None is perfect, but I have not found any of them to be totally worthless either...

I did not experience that issue with Parallels. Both Parallels and Fusion work well in my experience. Neither manipulates the Boot Camp installation of Windows, they only use that installation as the target guest OS.

Trisha K wrote:
I will never touch a virtual machine, especially Parallels again. Parallels *****!

I agree!