Anyone here use Parallels on Mac? Need some help understanding some basic principles!

[04Stefan07]

I've got Parallels 8 all setup on my Mac for Astrophotography. Still learning how to use it. The way it is setup is that I use Coherence mode (share my Mac OS X with the Windows VM environment) and have my main folders shared (Documents, Desktop, etc).

I captured some video with my webcam and saved it to the Desktop of the Windows VM machine. It appeared on my Mac OS X machine since I have that integration mode on. Here are some questions (it all works fine I just would like to understand exactly how it is working) I want to ask.

- I have allocated 80GB to the VM (since capturing videos take GB's). I captured about 5GB of videos. I checked the VM machine size and it did not expand (stayed at 3.5GB), how come?
- As said previously the VM did not expand so I am assuming that the videos are captured straight to the Mac's Desktop (even though in the program I selected the Windows desktop) since it is shared. Is this correct?
- If the videos are captured straight to Mac desktop does that mean I can allocate less space to the Windows VM (say around 20GB instead?).

Thanks.

[Poita]

The Windows VM can be fairly small if you are saving files out to the general hard drive area. The video captures just go straight to 'normal' non VM space, so need to allocate space for them.
You need space for temporary files, programs etc. Unless you are really pushed for space, don't make it too small, but yeah 80GB is overkill.

[Kunama]

Does Parallels have an 'auto expand' option similar to 'Virtual Box'? If so, you can just allocate the minimum default size and use the auto-expand option so that more space is allocated as required.

[Kunama]

My son found that using the VM wasn't as 'efficient' as installing Windows separately through 'Bootcamp' but in that case you do have to allocate the required space and restart in Windows mode when you want to use it.

[04Stefan07]

That is true I used to use BootCamp. It takes full avantage of the computers resources but does require a restart to switch in-between OS's. The problem is I used to run XP fine on a 2010 Macbook Air. Now I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro and still want to run XP but had no choice but to resort to Windows 7 through BootCamp. This is because the hardware is newer and incompatible with XP.

I have now switched to a VM so I can run XP. All I need this for is to run the NexImage's webcam app and record videos therefore having Windows 7 was overkill (mainly because of the 15-20GB it needed just for the OS whereas XP is only a few GB's). I have 8GB RAM in my Mac and it would be best to have at least 8 or more.

I am currently running XP in a VM with 2GB RAM, 60GB dedicated to the VM (can be increased or decreased which is another advantage), 1 core (just changed to 2 cores) and 256mb of video memory. I have tested capturing videos through the 5MP NexImage camera at a 2592x1944 resolution with the max of 6FPS and the lowest resolution of 640x480 at 52FPS, uncompressed AVI (files tend to be GB's) and it runs beautifully.

[04Stefan07]

So basically they go to my Mac and I do not need to allocate 80GB's for the virtual machine yeah?

[Steffen]

When Parallels is running, by default you have your Mac Downloads, Documents and Home folders available inside the Windows VM (typically as X;, Y: and Z: drives), and you also have the Windows VM's C: drive mounted as a volume available to Mac OSX. Hence there is no need to allocate a lot of storage space to the VM, unless there is a reason to keep it separate from the host filesystem.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Poita]

That is correct, just specify the 'mac drive' for your captures, such as the documents folder.

[04Stefan07]

Cool thanks all!

:D

[DannyV]

I use vmWare Fusion 5 - cheap it's great to use concurrently with mac session and their online real person support is terrific.

Just my two cents worth :D

[04Stefan07]

VMWare is pretty good as well.