if the parallel is save enough

Hi guys

I´m using parallel with windows xp on my imac17" 2Ghz 1GB Ram 160Gb.

The question:- is it save to do work like book-keeping ( the software which i have runs only on windows). I´m afraid i may loose all the work. my Parallel did few times disappear and i had to start all over again. is this situation familiar to anybody, and if someone has suggestion to make it work consistant. For the moment, i dont feel very safe with it.

Secondly when i conect an external HD while parallel is open. the messege shows up saying ".usb drive u r trrying to conect to virtual mashine is used by another process wait 5 - 1o seconds" but nothing happens and m not using anything else which is stoping the work.


Thirdly. how big is the hard disk. when i click the "property page view" it shows 8000 MB users /name/library/parallel/winxp. m i using the same macs hard disk space. I´m very concern about the space of my VM. so everytime i try not to download or install anything unless its very important.

Any suggestions welcome
Thank you
Urgyen