In article <sgs094ti6kdhld7371qa2ue6afmrt1hoss@4ax.com>, Juan I. Cahis <jiclbchSINBASURA@attglobal.net> wrote:
> Strictly speaking, you don't need BootCamp to use VMWare Fusion or > Parallels Desktop, but I see several advantages to use it. First, your > data is on a real disk partition instead of a simulated disk > partition, and this is a good measure to protect your data, the most > valuable asset in your computer. Real disk partitions are the standard > way where any operating system store valuable data.
If a hard disk dies, every partition on that drive dies with it. Virtual machine disk images, on the other hand, can be copied anywhere and backed up just like any other file. Also, you can expand disk images without having to repartition your hard drive. ; ) To me, the drawbacks of real partitions are far worse than disk images.
> Secondly, real disk partitions are faster than simulated disk > partitions, and they need less care to optimize them.
While real hardware is a bit faster, when it comes to vmWare Fusion performance, it's not *that* much faster (see the link below).
> I don't have > years of experience using VMWare Fusion for Mac, but I have a lot of > years of experience using VMWare for other platforms, and in order to > have a good disk access in their simulated disk partitions you should > periodically do a compacting and defragmenting process on them. And > these processes aren't without any risk.
The numbers show vmWare's disk performance is very close to native disk performance:
<http://tinyurl.com/2egwwy>
Parallels Desktop, on the other hand, leaves a lot to be desired, and could use some improvement.
> Finally, real disk partitions don't disturb Apple's Time Machine > (Apple's backup on OSX), and simulated disk partitions (which are > simple OSX files) do, unless you explicitly exclude them in Time > Machine's settings.
Huh? Virtual Machine disk images don't "disturb" the operation of Time Machine in the slightest. Time Machine is able to back up virtual disk images just fine. The only drawback is that they are large files, so if you have a 40 GB disk image, Time Machine backups can add up. But Time Machine is designed to automatically trim old files from the backup when it runs low on space on the backup volume.
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