Boot Camp, Parallels or Both?

I recently ordered a MacBook Air with the following configuration:
1.3GHz Intel Dual-Core Core i5 (Turbo Boost 2.6GHz)
8GB 1600MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
512GB Flash Storage
Intel HD Graphics 5000
I need to install Windows because I have to run an application for work called Delmia Quest. It's a 3D simulator of an industrial environment for production and manufacturing. I also need to install Microsoft Visio and Bizagi Process Modeler, and those will be all the programs I'll need to run on Windows. After reading some forum topics about the best way to install Windows on Mac I became confused. My preferable option would be Parallels because this way I could run both OS at the same time. However, I'm concerned the graphics won´t display well on Parallels with the 3D simulator as I've read on some forum topics, despite having plenty of RAM.
What would be the best option for this scenario? Will Parallels be enough or should I install Boot Camp or even Boot Camp and then run it by Parallels?

Given that one program is a 3D modeler I'd be concerned about using it in Parallels too. Microsoft can be a real PITA about Windows activation but the phrase "Apple computer" tends to work magic if/when you have to call about too many activations. I'd install Windows in BootCamp due to the 3D software and once the Windows and software are configured I'd install Parallels and see how the programs run in Parallels. If nothing else that lets you run the one program at its best while giving you the option of having both the Mac and Windows available some of the time when that software isn't being used.

Similar Messages

Boot Camp / Parallels Installation

Purchased 2nd IMAC a few weeks ago. Apple staff per request transferred files, etc from previous mac to new. Also created partition and installed Parallels and Win 7. I can only access Windows from my login account. None of other user accts can access. This a completely different install than on previous IMAC. It seems a virtual copy of the OS is in my Documents folder under Finder view.
I contacted store where purchased - which is out of state; contacted national tech support and even took the Mac to a store 2 hours away from my home- no one can seem to assist or correct. I cannot readily tell by looking in Finder if the disk was partitioned. I really need my Mac..any suggestions on next steps?
This is my 1st disappointment with Apple......always great customer service but this stinks..no one stepping up to plate.

Sometimes what you learn doing things yourself is worth the time and effort. I wouldn't want someone else doing the installs.
It sounds like Windows is on its own partition and can dual-boot natively as well as run under OS X.
Anyone should be able to that way. But, if they have just VM in your account - easy to know and find out if there is a large 20GB -ish sized image then it isn't using Boot Camp + Parallels.
I would be asking and looking in Parallels (also).
http://forum.parallels.com/forumdisplay.php?&f=58

Boot camp, parallels, or vmware?

I'm looking at buying a mac this fall for school. I'll be studying engineering and running some fairly heavy software for programming and 3D modeling. I'm also interested in running Windows somehow, but I don't have much of an idea as to how to do that. I've heard that boot camp, VMware, and Parallels would all be capable somehow. I know that with boot camp I could only run one or the other. In order to access files in one operating system that I saved in the other, would I have to use external storage somehow to transfer it? Also, would it be easier at that point to just go with VMware or Parallels instead? Or would they significantly slow down my laptop?

momorauls,
with Boot Camp, you’d have read-only access to the other operating system’s partition — NTFS read-only under OS X, HFS+ read-only under Windows.
Whether a virtualizer would be easier than Boot Camp or not depends on what you’d like to do. The advantage of a virtualizer is simultaneous access to both operating systems; the disadvantages are that some portion of your RAM would be exclusively dedicated to the virtualizer, and that the guest OS would be somewhat slower than if it were in a Boot Camp partition. If your Windows programs are demanding on the hardware (e.g. GPU-heavy games), then that would make the slowdown even more noticeable.

My Boot Camp, Parallels and Adobe quest.

I've been a pc user since 1983! For now my desktop will still be a windows pc, but since deciding to get my first laptop I wanted to dive into the Apple waters and bought a MacBook Pro. My main apps are Adobe Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4. Without doing the full research I knew I could run both in OS X and Windows so I got the MBP. I also got a free copy of Parallels, since that seemed promising, with the Mac. Only after doing the initial MBP setup did I fully research everything.
I found out Adobe will let me run in only OS X OR Windows not both. Since I'm not going Mac Pro for awhile that forces me to run LR2 & CS4 in Windows on my MBP. Since this might be done on week to month trips with the laptop my thought is to install Boot Camp with just my photo apps and 50% more space in a Boot Camp partition and run them that way. My data will be on Quad interface drives that I plan on accessing through ec34 eSATA card. I'll install Parallels perhaps, but don't plan on letting it touch my BC partition. I'll use the OS X with Paragon NTFS for all other non photo related work, i.e. stuff I do not also do concurently. Does that seem the optimum approach?
If the MBP turns out as well as Apple says I'll plan for a long term software/hardware transition to an iCore7 based Mac Pro in the future with my Mac Book Pro heling smooth the transition.

Nobody's answered in a year -- giving up.

AutoCAD LT - Boot Camp - Parallels/Fusion

I need to run AutoCAD on a new iMac 21.5" purchased this week, and am wondering how best to accomplish this?
Is AutoCAD processor-intensive to the point that Boot Camp would be the preferred method, or would Fusion or Parallels work fine, without too much of a performance hit?
I will probably hold off on this until Apple releases their Boot Camp drivers for Windows 7. I would rather not install an obsolete OS like XP or Vista now that Windows 7 is out...but think it might be wise to wait for the Boot Camp in case that's the best way to go.
There will be some other work-related apps running on the Windows side...but I don't think it's going to be needed on a daily basis...more like 2-3 times a week.
Any advice on which way to go (Boot Camp or Parallels/Fusion)...and, also, is it recommended I go with 64-bit or 32-bit version of Windows 7?
Advice would be greatly appreciated.

I have AutoCad installed on the Mac, both in Parallels and in Boot Camp. The installation works best in Boot Camp for me and feels as good as on a PC. In fact it seems to run faster on the Mac. I also have 4GB of Ram installed, and it seems fine. Will have to give it a speed test some time just to find out. I have it installed as 32 bit and see no problems. Depending how intense your design is you probably won't need any more memory, wich is one of the big reasons for using a 64 bit. Also I would actualy install your AutoCad on a friends windows 7 and make sure it runs well. I have heard from friends they had several problems with it. Don't know the reasons for it............Art

Boot Camp - Parallels - Windows 7 - 32bit - 64bit

Hi. First off, and not looking for sympathy - just a little background of myself: I have recently recovered from two bouts of high dose chemo and a stem cell transplant. My memory and brain...processing speed, for lack of correct word or two, is no where near what it used to be. I need things to be explained just a tad bit more thorough.
I have an iMac 27" 3.4GHz i7 - 8GB Ram - 2GB Radeon HD 6970 - 1TB HD and use FCPX for a lot of editing. I will, in the near future, need to use some Windows programming/software. Ok, now my questions:
1) Do I even need Parallels 7, which I just bought today, to use Windows 7 or is Boot Camp the way to go? (And I can get my $50 back.)
2) I have Norton's via COMCAST. I never assume, so, will I need to load my own Norton's with Windows 7 or will COMCAST internet connection, using Norton's, be acceptable protection?
3) ...I forgot...
Thank you in advance for your assistance!
Jason

1.) Depends on your usage of Windows and on the programs you want use with Windows.
BootCamp is the better solution for hardware-demanding Windows programs in the field of gaming and/or §d-rendering/movie-editing since it uses the native (real) hardware of your Mac.
Downfall of BootCamp is that you have to reboot your Mac to switch from OSX to Windows and back.
Parallels biggest asset is the ability to run Windows alongside OSX. Downfall is that hatdware-demanding programs are running slower.
2.) I am not familiar with the Comcast Norton, but when running Windows you must have a decent Anti-Virus solution for it.
3.) when it comes back, ask...
Get well soon
Stefan

Transfer boot camp, parallels, windows to internal drive

My 2011 MBP crashed for the 4th time (bad graphics chips), so I was given a new MBP. They nicely kept the old machine and transferred the HD info over to the new one.
However, they did not transfer any of the boot camp/windows/parallels stuff. I had a $5500 CAD program in there. and lots of files.
Fortunately, I have been doing bootable backups using SuperDuper, so I have an external HD with all the stuff on it. The backup is several weeks old, however, and I don't want to erase the new stuff.
My question is how can I transfer the boot camp partition intact from the external drive to the internal drive?

Cosman wrote:
My 2011 MBP crashed for the 4th time (bad graphics chips), so I was given a new MBP. They nicely kept the old machine and transferred the HD info over to the new one.
However, they did not transfer any of the boot camp/windows/parallels stuff. I had a $5500 CAD program in there. and lots of files.
Fortunately, I have been doing bootable backups using SuperDuper, so I have an external HD with all the stuff on it. The backup is several weeks old, however, and I don't want to erase the new stuff.
My question is how can I transfer the boot camp partition intact from the external drive to the internal drive?
It seems to me probable that on your original HD you must have had a Bootcamp Partition, and that you had Parallels installed and set up to use the Bootcamp partition. Apple did not move your Bootcamp to your new HD so it does not have a Bootcamp partition at all, so when you launch Parallels it can't find an operating system. Unfortunately, as CSound1 says, SuperDuper does not backup Bootcamp partitions so your external HD will not have a backup of your Bootcamp on it. Bootcamp partitions need a completely separate method (Winclone is the best) to back up or transfer to a new HD.
Unless you backed up the Bootcamp Partition some other way, I am afraid you have probably lost everything Windows.
The only remote possibility is that you did actually have a separate Parallels installation which was not using the Bootcamp partition. If this is the case the Parallels Virtual Machine will be on your new hard drive and will be a substantial size compared to one which is simply pointing to a Bootcamp Partition. Parallels VMs are usually installed in username/Documents/Parallels/ but could be somewhere else in your user directory.
If you recover from this situation have a look at Winclone as the best way to backup your Bootcamp Windows partition. Personally I gave up on Bootcamp a few years ago because of the problems of backing up restoring Bootcamp partitions, but that was before Winclone was as good as it is now. A pure Parallels set up is much easier to manage and is fully backed up by Superduper. Parallels is much faster than most Bootcamp devotees realise, and plenty adequate for all except extreme gaming (IMHO).
Another thing to think about in the future is to establish a discipline of testing your backups from time to time.

Boot Camp + Parallels 5

I just installed Windows 7 in boot camp, everything worked well there, but when I boot into OS X the Boot Camp drive is not even visible, and I would like to use it with Parallels. I try to go into Disk Utility and mount it but it doesn't mount either. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Have you seen this thread...maybe something there:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10273760&#10273760
Do a search as well if you have time, as there have been other similar threads recently.

Windows, Boot Camp & Parallels. Are 2 activations needed?

If I want to be able to choose to either boot directly into XP or instead use XP in a Parallels window, should I install XP first (using Boot Camp) and then install Parallels, which will likely ask for the XP activation key? I have a brand new XP sp2 disc so I should have two activation chances.
If I install and activate XP in Parallels, so I need to set up a Boot Cam partition first?
Ia there is no way to accomplish this using only one activation key?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Click here for information. These were found by searching Google, not the Apple Discussions; in the second case, the search query 'VMware "Boot Camp" activation' was used.
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Can I play games on my MacBook Pro by using an external graphics card and using windows via a software called "Parallels Desktop" or do I have to use Boot Camp (I have both installed)

Can I use Windows Parallel to play games? I mean will it not get enough power? Like I clearly remember that I read some where one my system that the Paralels is getting only 1 GB of my ram. I have the mid 2012 MacBook Pro, the $1500 one.

You shouldn't use Parallels to pay games. If you want to play games you need to install Windows via Bootcamp so that it has access to all the resources available.

Having trouble with Boot Camp/Parallels on new macbook

I just recently purchased a new macbook last week.
I first tried installing Windows via bootcamp, Everything worked fine until I inserted the XP disk and it started the installtion, after loading all the files it would tell me _.sys (different file every time) was missing or corrupt and I never got anywhere.
I then tried parallels and it got through 40% of the first install no problem, then stopped several times telling me a certain file was missing or something with options to retry or skip, retried everytime to finish installation, but after that after I get windows xp loading screen just got the Blue Screen of death and it crashed.
I don't think the problem is the disk since last week my HD crashed and I installed XP on my PC no problem. Disk is Windows XP Media Center OEM, 2 setup disks and one for SP2

I had similar problems with Win XP intallation. If you got extra RAM, remove it before installing Win XP.

Osx and xp, parallel desktop or boot camp?

Hello
i use ESRI ArcMap on a windows computer and i'd like to get rid of this machine as soon as possible, 'cause it's really the only application i'm using on it.
unfortunately VirtualPC was too slow to use, since the GIS-application itself already used a lot of power.
so how about parallel desktop? is this emulating xp or are both os's bootet from beginning? and what about performance?
thank you so much for your help
senex

Hi senex
I'm not using any of the new generation of methods of running Windows and Windows apps on Macs, but I'll tell you what I know. Firstly, Boot Camp, Parallels and Crossover all only run on Intel Macs.
Boot Camp runs Windows XP on its own partition of your HD, it runs at full PC speed, so performance is no issue, and you can only be booted in Mac OS X or in Windows at any one time.
Parallels runs Windows XP in a window within OS X, so you can use both OSes at the same time. Windows XP takes a slight performance hit in Parallels, and I've seen reports that Windows apps run at about 95% of the speed you would normally expect to experience, which the majority of users find perfectly acceptable.
Crossover runs Windows apps without any need for Windows XP to be installed. It is still quite early in its development and not fast enough or sophisticated enough yet to compete with the above two solutions.
Hope this helps.
Matthew Whiting

Parallels Desktop, Boot camp or something else

I am wanting to run Windows on my MacBook Pro - but didn't know what route to go. Has anyone tried Parallels, Fusion, boot camp, etc - What are the pros/cons of them. I am currently running Tiger on mine.
And just to make sure...I do have to my Windows XP correct - Is there a packaged deal out there where you buy boot camp and XP?
THANKS!

Windows on Intel Macs
There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.
1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows XP w/Service Pak 2 or Vista. Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.
2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows. The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.
5. Last is Q. Q is a freeware emulator that is compatible with Intel Macs. It is much slower than the virtualization software, Parallels and VM Fusion.
Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system.
See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion.
Boot Camp is only available with Leopard. The Boot Camp Beta that was used with Tiger has expired and is no longer available for use. So contrary to the other poster's comment, Boot Camp isn't truly "free." You must purchase Leopard to get it.

Running Windows, Parallels? Boot Camp?

I've used boot camp very successfully with my mac desktop, but I'm hoping to receive a macbook (the black one) for christmas, and I'm hoping for a better option when using windows. I tried parallels with one of my older, clunkier macs (the one that's full of my movies, music, etc.) and it ran very slow, and it was nearly impossible to run other programs alongside it. Has anyone else had this problem, or is it fairly easy for you to run Parallels with other programs? I really love the malleability of parallels compared to boot camp. The idea of partitioning a large portion of my hard drive in a fairly permanent way is not very appealing to me. Any suggestions?

Windows on Intel Macs
There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.
1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows XP w/Service Pak 2 or Vista. Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.
2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, or Vista Ultimate. VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.
4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows. The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.
5. VirtualBox is a new Open Source freeware virtual machine such as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris. It is not yet fully developed for the Mac - some features are not yet implemented - but it does work otherwise.
6. Last is Q. Q is a freeware emulator that is compatible with Intel Macs. It is much slower than the virtualization software, Parallels and VM Fusion.
Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system.
See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion.
Boot Camp is only available with Leopard. The Boot Camp Beta that was used with Tiger has expired and is no longer available for use. So contrary to the other poster's comment, Boot Camp isn't truly "free." You must purchase Leopard to get it.

How should i allocate the right RAM and disk space to windows through boot camp or parallels ?

i am trying to understand how you need to set things up when trying to run windows from a mac ( using bootcamp / parallels ). i want to understand the implications around RAM.
i have a mac with 1terra SSD and 16 GB of RAM, and if i want to install windows i need to partition and allocate memory and disk space for windows.
now i would be running on windows :
cad 2015
revit / rhino
photoshop and some other graphic softwares
so my questions are:
how do i decide how much space should be allocated to windows and once i decide that, can i change it later ?
how do i decide what RAM should be allocated to windows. and can i also change that in the future ?
now lets say i allocated 8 GB of RAM for winddows using bootcamp, does that mean that every time i log into my mac through OS, it will only be using 8GB of the total RAM ?
here's my last question : i have my parallels software yet to be installed, just as the windows 8 software. now should i use bootcamp to install windows ? could i install windows using parallels ? if yes which is better to use ?

oliverfrombeirut wrote:
so my questions are:
how do i decide how much space should be allocated to windows and once i decide that, can i change it later ?
how do i decide what RAM should be allocated to windows. and can i also change that in the future ?
now lets say i allocated 8 GB of RAM for winddows using bootcamp, does that mean that every time i log into my mac through OS, it will only be using 8GB of the total RAM ?
here's my last question : i have my parallels software yet to be installed, just as the windows 8 software. now should i use bootcamp to install windows ? could i install windows using parallels ? if yes which is better to use ?
1. Windows needs 60GB for good performance, add the needs of the apps you intend to use and I would say no less than 100GB. (it can be changed later but it is not an easy task unless you pay for Camp Tune)
2. You do not allocate Ram to Windows in Boot Camp. Windows will use all of it (64bit Windows) or 4GB (32bit Windows)
3. See 2
4. Use Boot Camp, Parallels will not allow Windows to run at full speed.
General Notes:
1. Make a complete backup of your Mac before you start! (do not skip this)
2. Read the Boot Camp directions, then read them again.

Boot Camp, Parallels or Both?

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