Is parallels or bootcamp better?

I've got a hdd 8gb ram and 2.5 ghz processor and plan on running solidworks, which would be better? Plan on installing windows 7

VirtualBox is a free virtual environment as well.
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.8.4) 2.4GHz IntelCore i5 320 HD 8GB RAM ParallelsDesktop8.0 iPhone5_iOS6.1.4

Similar Messages

How to move windows 8.1 from parallels to bootcamp?

I just bought a Macbook Pro Retina (late 2013) a few days ago, and installed a windows 8.1 into it using parallels. Now I want to bootcamp my mac because I realize bootcamp play games better than parallels. So I want to ask is there a way to move my windows 8 from parallels to bootcamp

if you need the stuff from the parallels install then use a window backup program and make a backup and store it somewhere external
install windows in bootcamp and restore the backup you took of the parallels virtual machine

Vista on Parallels and Bootcamp

I just bought the lastest Parallels and Windows Vista Ultimate, but before I go and install I heard from my friends that there is a way to set up and partition my hard drive so I can run vista through both Parallels and Bootcamp, with them sharing the same partitioned memory is this true? If so, where can I find the instructions online? Do you get to choose how the ram are distributed when I run the system? If so, what is a good ratio?

Jackian wrote:
I just bought the lastest Parallels and Windows Vista Ultimate, but before I go and install I heard from my friends that there is a way to set up and partition my hard drive so I can run vista through both Parallels and Bootcamp, with them sharing the same partitioned memory is this true? If so, where can I find the instructions online? Do you get to choose how the ram are distributed when I run the system? If so, what is a good ratio?
If you google you will find some information. One problem with Vista, at least during the beta days was that each time you ran it from the other system (BootCamp/Parallels) it asked to be reactivated.
http://macgroup.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/686608333/m/2281020332
If you search this forum you will also find many users who are running Winders under both camps.
It's apparently quite easy.

Parallels and Bootcamp Thread

Id like to start a thread involving the 2. I am would like to get users of both to state their observations and personal opinions. Please take a few moments to add a comment.
This is to help me and others when trying to decide which to use. I have no choice, I need XP on here, but I HATE the thought of it being inside my clean, pure Mac! lol
Lets see if I have it correct:
Bootcamp:
-Software to bootup Windows. You cannot simply switch over from OS X.
-You must partition the drive and install Windows on the partition
-Allows you to use 100% of the Mac's resources
-easliy "unpartition" drive if Windows is to be removed in the future
Parallels:
-Software allowing one to switch back and forth from OSX and Windows and also allows one to use both at the same time
-Must still partition the drive, but can specify the amount
-Apps. running in Windows must share resources with OSX, so this may cause Windows apps to run slower.
-does not offer an "unpartiton" option. You must wipe the entire drive
Have I got the basics? I will edit this if not. Thank you!

I'll post to this because while I support the "search first" concept often the information is scattered in multiple threads interlaced with other comments and it takes a ton of time to decipher it all.
Also in this case I believe both Parallels and Bootcamp have changed the personal computing world enough that I believe we need to examine them together in detail:
First off: I purchased a MacBookPro and a MacMini based on Intel BECAUSE of these two technologies.
My work requires programming in Windows XP under Delphi. Yet I prefer Unix and OS X is Unix with a killer GUI. For many years I wanted a notebook that would give me everything in one nice package. The MBP is that notebook and I can only see them getting better and better. Mine has been the best notebook I've ever owned even with the little things like warped lid etc.
Parallels simply put is the answer to a dream for me. All I need Windows for is to run my programming environment and test. I need internet/network connectivity. In Parallels I get all that and more.
I installed BootCamp the day the beta came available and it was great. No doubt a killer way to run Windows. But I lost OS X. IE I couldn't switch. For me this was not much better than having a Windows based laptop. I wanted both.
I think what Parallels has accomplished is simply amazing and I participate in the Parallels forums. But I see alot of people asking for things that are very difficult. Basically they want Parallels to fully support highspeed 3D graphics and full USB 2.0. Both of these things give Windows alone a headache. To ask that it be done in a virtualization environment seems to be asking the impossible.
Yet Parallels claims there will be answers to these questions. For now I can tell any of you that are concerned... I have not found ONE SINGLE PROGRAM that does not run in Parallels UNLESS it is doing something hardware specific.
Add to that the speed which which it runs (almost native!) and you simply can't go wrong.
Furthermore as people here have stated. Parallels uses a disk file to represent the hard disk. To me this is BETTER than having a partition. One simple reason... You can easily make backups of the ENTIRE hard disk. My Windows XP Parallels file is about 16gb. It takes about 5 minutes but on a regular basis and before EVERY new install of anything in Windows or OS X I copy it to my backup disk. I have about 5 archived versions of this file.
In the event something goes bad in a Windows install... No problem. Quit the VM, copy the "good" file back in place and you've just gone back in time BETTER than any of the restore point stuff in Win XP ever could be.
That alone makes Parallels an AMAZING choice for people doing testing and development. You can have a "fresh & clean" environment at anytime by copying over a saved off disk file.
Bootcamp, since it puts WinXP on a disk partition you are resigned to using some of the disk cloning software to achieve the same thing. Most of those like Norton GoBack and others require reboots to "unlock" the volume for cloning. During this reboot you are hosed and unable to use your machine.
With Parallels while I'm backing up my VM file I'm in Entourage answering messages or surfing the web in Safari/OmniWeb.
If I were Apple I would be buying up Parallels as we speak and making sure this technology was tightly integrated into Leopard or whatever is destined next.
Imagine an OS that could boast: Install ANY OS with in this OS and run it at close to native speed in a window! That is what Parallels gives OS X at the current moment. If Apple bought it, put it in Leopard or whatever and didn't kill it too bad with registrations and limitations it might place a serious crimp in M$ plans for XP in the future. They have NOTHING close to this.
So that's my sales pitch for Parallels. (Parallels... I'll expect my check in the mail!!) It's not for everyone! If you want to run XP based fast graphics games... You will probably have trouble. If you want to control various strange USB devices requiring drivers. You will probably have trouble. If you want to install and run the mariad variety of XP software and be able to use it while you are still running everything you like and love about OS X then it is the way to go.
The ONLY caveat... MEMORY! Load your machine up to the max! MacPRO users have a special problem in that they can put more memory in than Parallels supports but those issues are being worked on.
I'm hoping someday a firmware/ROM fix comes out for the MBP that enables us to put 4gb in these little notebooks. That would rock.
Mark

I have an imac bought late 2013, can i use it as a display for the new mac pro? I also want to use windows 8 on it, would this work with parallels or bootcamp?

I have an imac bought late 2013, can i use it as a display for the new mac pro? I also want to use windows 8 on it, would this work with parallels or bootcamp?

Yes, it supports target display mode. Windows can be run with either Parallels or Boot Camp.

Can BootCamp beta be installed on Tiger by setting the clock back?

Hello
I have a MacBook, it is about one year old. I have been running BootCamp on with with XP Pro/SP2 since the day I got it, and it has always worked fine.
Now, however, for a few reasons, I want to wipe my hard drive clean completely - set the partitions back to being one partition, format everything, install Tiger, install BootCamp, install XP, etc.
I am concerned about BootCamp though, as the beta has expired and I don't intend on getting Leopard anytime soon.
If I try to open the BootCamp assistant, it obviously says that it's expired. I've often heard that you can get around it by setting the system clock back to 2007. I did so, and I got the following common error message:
"The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partion..."
I've read that this usually means that there's something wrong with the way your partitions are set up...but I have only two partitions, the OSX partition and the XP partition as the BootCamp Assistant itself set up a year ago. I've never had any trouble booting into Windows, and I've never had any problem with BootCamp before this. I don't know what could be causing this, but I'm thinking if I'm going to wipe the entire hard drive clean, I might as well just use disk utility to delete the XP partition and go from there.
But I don't want to wipe my hard drive if I can't use BootCamp again afterwards, so my real question is this: If I wipe my hard drive completely, install OSX, and then
1.Set the system clock back to 2007
2.Install BootCamp Beta
3.Run BootCamp Assistant to make the partitions, install XP
4.After XP Installation, set the OSX clock back to its appropriate time
WILL THAT WORK?
I need a definitive answer to this, and it's no, is there any other way I can accomplish what I'm trying to do?

Yes that should work, I have tried a similar thing in the past.
See also http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1309
"Boot Camp Beta: Removing a Windows partition after Boot Camp Beta has expired in Mac OS X 10.4"

Download Speeds slow on Mac, not on PC, Parallels or Bootcamp?

I recently switch from DSL to Cable because they offered higher speeds. I don't know if this affected DSL before because they only offered up to 2.5Mbps, the cable internet I'm on now is a 7Mbps/1Mbps line.
For the life of me, I cannot figure what is happening with my configurations. I have 2 PCs at home, a intel imac, and a macbook. When I run speedtests on dslreports or when I download large files from microsoft/apple, I get great speeds on my PCs. Around 880KB/s down. However, when I try to do the exact same thing on OSX, I get speeds around 260KB/s and it seems to be capped there.
The strange thing is that when I run parallels or boot camp, and try the exact downloads or speedtests I get the correct 7Mbps that I'm supposed to get. Am I doing something wrong with my configurations on OSX? It doesn't make sense that I can download in a window on OSX running paralles and get the fast speeds but thru OSX I cannot?
Both OS's are running Firefox. I've tried Safari and Camino on OSX and get the same results. I'm guessing its not a hardware problem because winxp on parallels and bootcamp get great speeds. This affects both my iMac and macbook. Any help would be appreciated

I have a 24megabit ADSL+2 connection and I had the same trouble as you.
When using Ubuntu or windows xp in parallels I had maximum uploads and downloads. But this was not the case in OSX.
My ftp uploads in osx were like 45k yet in ubuntu the were 120k to the same server.
I tried all sorts of methods to fix the problem.
But it turned out my problem was the router, I had a thompson/alcatel router a recent model.
I tried a cheap netgear adsl2+ router and bingo all my problems went away. I now have the same speeds in OSX and XP and Ubuntu.

Can I get rid of a windows partition on a MacBook running 10.4.11 without having bootcamp or bootcamp beta?

Can I get rid of a windows partition on a MacBook running 10.4.11 without having bootcamp or bootcamp beta? If so, how?

Yes, I think so, as would Snow Leopard probably. If your computer meets the requirements it would only cost $29 to buy Snow Leopard versus $129 for Leopard.
Snow Leopard General requirements
Mac computer with an Intel processor
1GB of memory
5GB of available disk space
DVD drive for installation
Some features require a compatible Internet service provider; fees may apply.
Some features require Apple’s MobileMe service; fees and terms apply.
Leopard System requirements
You must have a Macintosh computer with:
an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor
a DVD drive >built-in FireWire
at least 512 MB of RAM (additional RAM is recommended for development purposes)
a built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
at least 9 GB of disk space available, or 12 GB of disk space if you install the developer tools

Tiger, Bootcamp Beta, iTunes 10, and an iPhone

Essentially, I have an older 2006 intel MacBook Pro running Tiger 10.4.11, and I recently got an iPhone. Success!
Except when I tried to sync some of my music to it, apparently iPhones don't work with iTunes 9.
Okay great, a minor speedbump... I'll just download that new iTunes quick.
Except it doesn't run on Tiger 10.4
I am wondering what my options are. Here is what I have so far:
- Buy a new computer
- Install iTunes 10 on my XP side and sync my music first to that with my external hard drive.
- Upgrade OS?
The first two are costly and time consuming. The second is complicated, and I don't understand the nuances of what could happen. Can I upgrade to 10.5 easily? Is it still for sale? 10.6 is not so good I've heard. Could I even upgrade to 10.6? What happens to bootcamp beta with a new OS? ****, is there anything that can get messed up on my Mac side with an OS upgrade?
Are there any other options?
Let me know if further information can help this situation.
Thanks

Not quite sure which MBP you have 1,1 1,2 or 2,2...
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.
Then click on More Info>Hardware and report this upto but not including the Serial#...
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 6 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.21f4
Does the 9/30 GB mean that i have to have that, not including the 5-10GB that the 10.4 is taking up?
Yes, & more toward to 30GB if you want faster speed from OSX.
I don't entirely understand the Verify & Repair the Hard Drive command/process. I suppose that will pop up while installing/updating the OS?
Not by itself...
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
*Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.*
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Select your Mac OS X volume.
5. Click Repair Disk, (not Repair Permissions). Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214
Is there any free or cheap software for a complete back up of a Mac?
Get carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your old HD to the New one...
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Or SuperDuper...
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/

Using both Parallel and Bootcamp

Hi,
I was wondering if it's possible to have both Parallel and Bootcamp.
For my Macbook Pro Retina, I plan to install Windows 7 using Bootcamp to run Solidworks.
But I also want to have Parallel to switch back and forth to quickly do different tasks other than CAD.
Is it possible to have both with one Windows 7 product key?
If having both is possible, how do I do it and which one do I install first, Bootcamp or Parallels?
Thank you in advance

1. It is possible to use both Parallels and Bootcamp.
2. It requires reactivating the Windows side with the same product key.
3. Install Bootcamp first, then Parallels.
4. Please see http://kb.parallels.com/en/112941 for the necessary steps after Bootcamp is installed.

Running Parallels with Bootcamp

Hey guys. I was really wondering whether i should buy Parallels or just use Bootcamp. I was going to play some games on my new MacBook Air so i just thought of Bootcamp, but somebody told me that you could install Parallels and Bootcamp. I could experience both worlds! Cool!
Anyways, here are my questions. I hope you can answer them!
1. If i read correctly, i heard that you can use Parallels based on your bootcamp partition. Am i correct?
2. Does that mean i only have to install Windows once? And i can only have one part of my hard drive used for Windows, instead of 2 if i use Parallels and Windows separatly?
3. So basically, whenever i use Parallels based on my bootcamp parition, am i using Windows basically on bootcamp at the same time? (please tell me if you want to understand what i'm saying, i might not be clear here)
4. So when i use Parallels do i have all the stuff that i will have on my Bootcamp parition? Like all my files and games and whatnot?
Thanks!

1. yes
2. yes
3. yes
4. yes
Read the instructions for doing this on the Parallels or Fusion site. Both explain how to do this.

Not Again! Window Ultimate Parallels and Bootcamp

I have read hundreds of threads and I don’t want this to be another but I have question that were not specifically answered on not answered at all. I am a life long Windows user and finally made the jump a few months ago. I am a photographer and I have many thousands of dollars in (Windows) software. I considered repurchasing some of them, just keeping an old PC, buying new MAC license for the software that offered it but I have decided to run a dual OS MAC.
Specs:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,5
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP55.00AC.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.47f2
System Version: Mac OS X 10.6.1 (10B504)
The big question, Bootcamp or Parallels?
I will use Windows (Vista Ultimate 32bit) for Adobe Master Collection (mainly PS, DW and Flash). I have a few other pieces like Light Room, Aperture and one or two PC only apps. My main uses are minor/moderate .jpg photo retouches/edits in Photoshop and maintain my websites with Dreamweaver.
Questions:
1. With my needs, does it sound like BC or Parallels might be a good fit? (File sharing in mind)
2. What will I see when I fire up the MAC? Will Windows and MAC OS boot at the same time? Is there a choice of what to boot?
3. File Sharing; Can I take an image that I have brought in via iPhoto, edit it in Photoshop and send it back to the iPhoto library?
4. I understand that PS and DW are CPU hogs and not really memory. Is this true and should I take my 2gb of memory up to 4gb?
5..I have seen several comments about a Bootcamp portioned drive being better but no one has explained what that is. Can some one elaborate what that is and is that something done via the Parallels app and if not what is the difference between the Bootcamp partition and what Parallels does?
6.I will keep my online activities on the MAC side except for my ftp transfers for my sites. With this limitation and limited exposure do you think I need to install a virus protection on the windows side? Does loading Windows increase my exposure to viruses?
7.With Parallels, Can I shut down the Windows portion and have it apply all the resources back to the MAC os?
8.I have purchased but not opened Parallels 4.0. I see that 5.0 is out at the same price. Should I go with the new or stick with 4.0 which has been out for a while?
9.For those that say no to Parallels, should I just work with Bootcamp and a jump drive to move files back and forth?
10.Finally, with the specs below, how much space should I partition to carry the load?
*Specs for Parallel:*
Memory Requirements 1 GB of RAM (2 GB recommended to run Windows Vista). Support for any memory configuration (up to 16 GB), without modifying your host system.
Disk Space
Software Installation — 450 MB of available hard drive space for Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac installation (plus space to allocate to your virtual machine).
*Windows Ultimate Specs:* Not sure exactly how much space it eats up.
Min Processor Type: Intel x86 - 1 GHz
Min RAM Size: 1 GB
Min Hard Drive Space: 40 GB
*Adobe Master Collection Specs:*
2GB of RAM (more RAM recommended when running multiple components)
24.3GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)

Questions:
1. Boot Camp. Graphic/processor intensive apps should generally not be run in a virtual environment
2. It will startup in whatever OS you have chosen the computer to boot from
3. Yes
4. Yes..upgrade to 4GB
5. Running Windows through Boot Camp is no different than running it on any other PC...that's why it's better.
6. Of course. Windows is Windows no matter how or what it's installed on. It's still vulnerable to the same viruses.
7. Yes
8. See if you're entitled to free upgrade to Parallels 5
9. That's your call. Nobody can make that decision for you.
10. Depends on how big the hard drive is.

Parallel vs bootcamp

I've been trying to choose to either use parallel windows or bootcamp for my macbook air 13inch. The target for using windows is...... idk,, i think games mostly. Which do you think would work better????? Tell me some experiences please .

I'm using Parallels 7.0 (recently upgraded from Parallels 6.0) with a 13" Air with 4G memory and find that it's a great alternative for those that need to use MS apps such as OneNote or expereince compatibilities with internal IT enterprise apps and need a MS/IE compatible environment to enjoy your Mac.
Parallels integrates well into the Lion framework, it's efficient and works well.
Good luck

Can I install Windows 7 and Windows 8 to my MBA using Parallels and Bootcamp?

I have a Macbook Air (latest model, 11", i7, 256gb, 8gb ram, Mavericks).
I need to have access to Windows 7 and 8 and have been toying with the idea of getting a cheap laptop but the problem is most new machines are Windows 8 and they won't allow you to dual-boot with Windows 7 (you need W7 as your main OS and then install W8 later).
I'm also keen on not spending a shedload extra and carrying another device, so I was thinking if this was possible:
Buy Parallels Desktop 9 - then either using bootcamp or not, Install both Windows 7 and Windows 8.
I'm not fussed about running everything at the same time, happy to shut one VM down if it helps performance.
I have read that multiple OSs such as vista and XP worked once upon a time, but I get the feeling the screw is being tightened with all these cross OS installs and didn't want to drop a couple of hundred quid only to find out I'm trying something that isn't possible.
thanks for your advice.

I can't help you with Parallels, but I've been using VMware Fusion for quite a while and you can run Windows 95 through Windows 8.1 without difficulty, so Windows 7 and 8 on the same Mac is easy to do. I think your biggest difficulty will be the small size of your SSD. But with virtualization, you can put the virtual machines on an external SSD connected via USB 3.0 and run them quite well.

Parallels unmounted BOOTCAMP partition, I cant remount, cant use BC or Para

This is a crosspost from the parallels support forums. Nobody has responded there and I have tried a few more things and all have failed, desperation is rising.
I hope someone here has some kind of idea what might be going on because I have some very valuable data on my boot camp partition and I did not expect a trial of Parallels to destroy it...
I tried installing the Parallels trial version of Desktop 6. For some reason it would not ID my boot camp partition and said that I had to mount it using the disk utility. I thought this was strange but didn't think much more of it. I continued to use my computer for other purposes for about an hour and decided I wanted to head back to my BOOTCAMP side, so I restarted into Windows and recieved "Disk read error, press ctrl +alt +del" from the DOS prompt. Restarted a few times and continued to get the same error.
I returned to OSX and discovered that my BOOTCAMP partition no longer appears on my desktop, or as an option for Startup Disk. If I start Disk Utility, I see my OSX partition, and then I see my BOOTCAMP partition, but now it is unmounted (greyed out) and reads "disk0s3". Attempts to mount it have been unsuccessful. If I try the same from the terminal I receive "Volume on disk0s3 failed to mount".
I attempted to use Parallels to read the drive to at least recover my important documents but when I pointed it to the (what used to be) boot camp partition, the virtual machine reported "no OS installed on this drive".
In some research in the issue, I read something about MacFUSE or NTFS-3G locking down the mount abilities of the drive. Someone is having a similar issue as me here, for example. Finder does see a folder with one file called "ntfs-3g" in /opt/local/var/ in a FUSE folder, but other than that I see no indication of ntfs-3g being installed. Not only that but I attempted both uninstalling and installing MacFUSE from System Preferences. In both cases I could still not mount the drive or boot to my boot camp partition.
Please help! I'm really at my wit's end here and I am horrified at the thought of losing all of my data.
No idea if this helps but here is diskutil info on the partition
Some further research indicates there may be an issue with MBR? This is getting far out of the realm of my expertise so I would have no idea where to start investigating.
Device Identifier: disk0s3
Device Node: /dev/disk0s3
Part Of Whole: disk0
Device / Media Name: BOOTCAMP
Volume Name:
Escaped with Unicode:
Mounted: No
File System: MS-DOS
Type: msdos
Name: MS-DOS (FAT)
Partition Type: Microsoft Basic Data
Bootable: Is bootable
Media Type: Generic
Protocol: SATA
SMART Status: Verified
Total Size: 125.3 GB (125294346240 Bytes) (exactly 244715520 512-Byte-Blocks)
Volume Free Space: 0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Blocks)
Read-Only Media: No
Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (not mounted)
Ejectable: No
Whole: No
Internal: Yes
More information, from rEFIt:
* Report for internal hard disk *
Current GPT partition table:
# Start LBA End LBA Type
1 40 409639 EFI System (FAT)
2 409640 243417127 Mac OS X HFS+
3 243681280 488396799 Basic Data
Current MBR partition table:
# A Start LBA End LBA Type
1 1 409639 ee EFI Protective
2 409640 243417127 af Mac OS X HFS+
3 * 243681280 488396799 07 NTFS/HPFS
MBR contents:
Boot Code: Unknown, but bootable
Partition at LBA 40:
Boot Code: None (Non-system disk message)
File System: FAT32
Listed in GPT as partition 1, type EFI System (FAT)
Partition at LBA 409640:
Boot Code: None
File System: HFS Extended (HFS+)
Listed in GPT as partition 2, type Mac OS X HFS+
Listed in MBR as partition 2, type af Mac OS X HFS+
Partition at LBA 243681280:
Boot Code: Windows BOOTMGR (Vista)
File System: NTFS
Listed in GPT as partition 3, type Basic Data
Listed in MBR as partition 3, type 07 NTFS/HPFS, active
I have also tried booting from ubuntu live CD (which did not work and resulted in a very scary loud sysbeeping and flashing of the front LED). Then I tried booting from win7 CD. That may still be a viable option but I need to find a USB keyboard because the stock mackbook pro keyboard seems to not send input when i am prompted for "press any key to boot from CD/DVD".
I also tried uninstalling parallels and installing VMWare Fusion. Fusion also does not detect the BOOTCAMP partition. It doesn't see it at all. Assuming this is because it is still unmounted.
I do not care if I lose my install, I will probably want to do clean installs of both leopard and win7 after this is all over. But I really do need to recover my data. If anyone knows of a utility that can browse unmounted NTFS volumes locally from OSX, I will buy you a thousand peachy penguins.
Message was edited by: emtheory

Still no definitive solution but a few updates.
I was able to boot off the win7 DVD. Apparently I was not slamming the keys fast enough the first few times. I selected the option to repair an installation of windows, but it couldn't identify any NTFS partitions. At that point I decided any hope of booting from this partition was lost, and I may as well just focus on data recovery. I found a tool called FileSalvage which sweeps partitions, mounted or unmounted, and looks for the signature of known file types. It can then restore those files. I believe I should be able to restore most of the files I need with this type of tool, but unfortunately it costs $80. I am still looking for any similar DIY or freeware solutions.

Is parallels or bootcamp better?

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