VMWare Fusion / Parallels / Boot Camp : Questions

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Hey guys,


I'm beginning to have headaches with the Mac Pro running Vista as the only OS!

So, I'm thinking about doing the following.

Wipe the HDD completely, re-install Mac OS X 10.5.6, setup a boot camp partition (cica ~60Gb) and install Vista Ultimate x64 w/SP1.

Now I'm wondering, could I install either VMWare Fusion or Parallels on Mac OS and get it to use the boot camp partition? I'd be doing a reboot for playing games (mainly Crysis) however other apps I'd like to run in the VM.

I have a Windows-only TV tuner card (PCIe) and a Blu-Ray drive installed. However, would the Virtual Machine be able to see the TV tuner and Blu-Ray drive (using a SATA>PATA converter) - Mac OS X can see both devices although the tuner states 'no drivers installed'.

Basically I'd be using Fusion or Parallels for watching Blu-Ray movies and TV in Mac OS without rebooting.

If neither is possible it's not the end of the world, I can get a Elgato Hybrid again and use Boot Camp to watch the odd Blu-Ray movie, I'm just interested to know if it would work.

Any help on this would be great.

Thanks,

Marty
 
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With VMWare Fusion, (and i think it may be parallels as well,) you can run Windows Vista/XP along side Mac OS X without rebooting. That's the whole point of them.

And yes, you can install VMWare or Parallels and get either one of them to use boot camp partition.

Oh, and remember, (not to put you off or anything,) if you install either Windows Vista or XP on Mac OS X, and the Windows partition contracts a virus Apple will not take it from you and fix it. This is because WINDOWS was the one that contracted the virus.

I hope this helps!

Good Luck!
 
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Hi,

Thanks for the quick response.

I understand Fusion & Parallels can run Vista on Mac OS with out rebooting , however I'd think for gaming (specifically Crysis which is pretty hardware intense) it would be better to do so?

For installing Windows then, would I do it through boot camp first then install Fusion or Parallels or install it to the boot camp partition through Fusion or Parallels?

As for viruses, thats not going to be a problem. If anything does happen, I'll test out my backup system. :)

Could you confirm if Fusion or Parallels could see my Windows-only TV tuner card?

Thanks again.

Marty
 
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Yes, firstly you would have to make a Boot camp partition, then install Fusion or Parallels.
I suppose restarting for Crysis would be better as you said.

Yes, Fusion and Parallels will be able to see your Windows-only TV tuner card, as long as the Windows Partition could without the use of Fusion or Parallels.

Hope this helps
 
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Thanks for the help!

I've been looking at VMWare Fusion on the Apple Store and it does look like the hardware should work OK.

Features
Run your favourite Windows applications on your Intel Mac without rebooting.
Easily share data between your Mac and PC.
Switch to Mac with ease, bringing along all your applications, devices, and even your old PC.
Enjoy a true Mac-first user interface with searchable Apple help, Boot Camp support, Quick Look integration, and more.
Graduate from Boot Camp by running Windows and Mac at the same time. No more rebooting to access Windows apps on a Mac.

Time to re-install OS X me thinks. :)
 

bobtomay

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Oh, and remember, (not to put you off or anything,) if you install either Windows Vista or XP on Mac OS X, and the Windows partition contracts a virus and mucks up the Mac OS X side of the HD, Apple will not take it from you and fix it. This is because WINDOWS was the one that contracted the virus.

I hope this helps!

Good Luck!

Sorry, but this one was just one too many erroneous posts.

If Windows gets a virus it can not "muck up" OS X. A windows virus will only run in Windows. There are at this time zero, none, nada, zilcho viruses that can run in OS X and/or "muck it up".

Apple not fixing it has got nothing to do with the reason that it's because "WINDOWS" contracted the virus. Windows can't contract a virus on it's own. Unsafe practices by it's users allow those machines to become infected. There is not a single computer manufacturer that will fix a virus infested machine for you.
 
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Sorry, but this one was just one too many erroneous posts.

If Windows gets a virus it can not "muck up" OS X. A windows virus will only run in Windows. There are at this time zero, none, nada, zilcho viruses that can run in OS X and/or "muck it up".

It's also got nothing to do with the reason that it's because "WINDOWS" contracted the virus. Windows can't contract a virus on it's own. Unsafe practices by it's users allow those machines to become infected. And not only Apple, but there is not a single computer manufacturer that will fix a virus infested machine for you.

Yes, but I meant that it may interfere with File Transfers between the two sides of the HD. And Apple wont fix the computer if Windows contracts a virus on it.
 
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And I understand that there are NO viruses that an muck up OS X. If there ever was, it would make the headlines of every newspaper in the world!
 
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Well I downloaded a 30-day trial of VMWare Fusion and transfered the Boot Camp partition to it. Now, with the Mac booted into Windows from Boot Camp the TV tuner is detected and works no problems at all.

However, when I migrated the boot camp partition to VMWare Fusion and loaded it from there Windows can no longer see the PCIe card. Do I need to manually add the card, or is it impossible for the VM to see the device (kinda what I was expecting but Mr Macintosh said it would work?).

Thanks in advance! :)

Marty
 
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I purchased Leopard the other day and installed it last night (gawd it took ages) I got myself Parallels to run Windows and Ultima Online. My Intel 2ghz 1.5gb ram struggles to run both windows and Leopard. My CPU usage is 100% on both cores and I have around 30mb of memory left... buggar.
 
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Donkey, you didn't say what Windows you installed. If it was Vista, 1.5 of memory is going to be tight. XP requires much less memory to run. It also depends on what you are running on each system at the same time. I run XP under Fusion with 2 GB of RAM and its quite speedy. For Vista, folks here generally recommend 3 GB of RAM.

Cheers
 
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For my Vista VMWare machine I gave it 4 cores and 5Gb of RAM. Nice 50/50 split for OS X and Vista.

I'm going to purchase a Elgato 250+ or Hybrid and use Boot Camp solely for gaming. The odd Windows app will run through VMWare tho.
 

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