Confused about bootcamp and Parallels

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I am about to add Windows 7 to my iMac. I also have Parallels to add.

My confusion is whether (1) to do a partition of my iMac hard drive first and load Windows 7 to that partition, and finally then to load Parallels or (2) to load Parallels first and then add Windows 7 to it as a virtual machine.

I did not find in the Parallels' manual a discussion of what to do when you have Windows 7 already on your iMac, only how to add Windows 7 once Parallels is in place.

I may be confused even as to my terminology above.
 
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I don't think it matters which order you install them in since partitioning will completely isolate each part of the hard drive, so the OS X part won't be effected by windows at all.

What do you need to use windows for? It might turn out so you only need parallels or only need bootcamp.
 
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I use Windows for a stock trading program as Schwab doesn't make a Mac version for one of their trading platforms.

I have found on previous attempts that restarting the iMac to get to Windows is time consuming. With Parallels I can have an open window into Windows 7.

Still, I am confused. If I load Windows so that I use BootCamp to use Windows, and then add Parallels, will Parallels find and let me get into that Windows 7, or does Parallels make me load Windows a 2d time, in other words does Parallels find Windows 7 is already on the iMac? Again, I am confused about whether to add Windows 7 before Parallels or not.
 
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You will have to load Windows 7 onto bootcamp and parallels separately.
 
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If you have Windows already installed via Bootcamp, Parallels, as well as VMWare Fusion will be able to use the installed copy of Windows as a virtual Machine. You will then have the choice to boot directly into Windows if needed, or just load it up in a VM.
 
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Inconsistency?

I think there's an inconsistency here? I do or do not need to load Windows twice?
 
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Never mind, I was wrong. Sorry about that, apparently you can install windows on bootcamp first, then parallels will let you use it as a virtual machine.
 
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Questions:

Do you have Win 7 already on your machine under Boot Camp?

If yes, then just install Parallels - it will detect the BC partition and offer to create a virtual machine from it.

If no, then do you need to access your hardware natively under Windows (i.e., the graphics adapter for hard core gaming or video editing, 3D rendering, etc.)? If all you are doing is running productivity applications, you may not need Boot Camp.

If you don't need the native hardware access (and most users do not), then first install Parallels - it will then prompt you to use the Win7 disk to create a virtual win7 machine under Parallels.

either way, you only need to use the Win7 disk once.

Hope this helps but your original post was unclear about what you have and what you need.

cheers
 
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I too use some old legacy PC only programs. One that will never see a Mac version as the niche market is too small to justify a new version for OSX given dual and virtual booting options. These are technical/scientific datalogging programs and are very light on resource usage - storage space, ram, CPU cycles, graphics.

I looked at Win7 and it looks like an install is about 9-16 gb. And it needs lots of memory…running it virtual can have speed hits on those programs plus OSX programs in some cases. Since Win7 prefers something like 2-3 gb to feel snappy…leaving less for OSX.

My old legacy program is maybe 50 mb and the simple data files are a few hundred kb. Tiny. The virtual XP needs only ~0.5 gb of memory to feel peppy.

So I loaded XP into Parallels. I forget the size of the latter but a stripped XP is under 0.7 Gb. Some versions are much lower if you take the time to strip things away and turn off never to be used features and services.

Now I run the logger stuff in XP virtually. In it's own desktop "space". And there is zero noticeable lag or resource hogging or excess hard drive space being used. You can't tell in OSX if the virtual stuff is running. And you can't tell in virtual XP that you did not boot up in XP for real. Nice, and no blue screens and glitches.

I suggest you look at your needs to see if simpler might be better. If you just need to check your accounts and so forth Win7 has so many features, services, drivers, and resource needs that will never be used.
 
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What I read on the Parallels forum has confused me more.

A post in May says ( and I summarize a bit) “I have a Bootcamp partition. I want to use Parallels to access the partition while in Mac OS X without losing the ability to restart and go into a native version of Windows 7.” [end of quote]

An answering post on July 26 to that is as follows; ”Try this (using Parallels Desktop 5):
File -> New... -> Skip Detection -> Windows 7 -> Custom -> select Processors (probably half what you have), select RAM (probably half what you have or at least 4 GB less than your total) -> Boot Camp Partition -> select the disk and which partitions are for Windows 7 -> Shared Networking -> Virtual Machine -> select name and location.” [end of quote]

Wow…do I have to do that if all I want to do is be able to have Windows 7 where I can reboot and go to Windows or use Parallels and also be able to go to Windows7?”
 
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What I read on the Parallels forum has confused me more.

A post in May says ( and I summarize a bit) “I have a Bootcamp partition. I want to use Parallels to access the partition while in Mac OS X without losing the ability to restart and go into a native version of Windows 7.” [end of quote]

An answering post on July 26 to that is as follows; ”Try this (using Parallels Desktop 5):
File -> New... -> Skip Detection -> Windows 7 -> Custom -> select Processors (probably half what you have), select RAM (probably half what you have or at least 4 GB less than your total) -> Boot Camp Partition -> select the disk and which partitions are for Windows 7 -> Shared Networking -> Virtual Machine -> select name and location.” [end of quote]

Wow…do I have to do that if all I want to do is be able to have Windows 7 where I can reboot and go to Windows or use Parallels and also be able to go to Windows7?”

You will only have to do the setup stuff like that once, when you first set up Parallels to access the bootcamp partition. All that info is needed so that Parallels will be able set up the virtual hardware. Once that is done, all you will ever have to do after that is launch the virtual machine and Windows will boot in it. It will not change anything on the ability to reboot the computer int Windows. It is just the initial setup for the virtual hardware Windows will run on in Parallels.
 
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Schwab does have a program, StreetSmart Pro, which runs only on a PC. There is a program, StreetSmart.com, which runs on a Mac but it is not as fully equipped as the former.
 

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