Installing parallels 5 with bootcamp

I just got a new 27" imac (first apple) and am looking for some guidance installing / running windows. I would like the ability to run windows 7 in parallels 5 and through bootcamp. Can someone point me in the right direction as to how to do the installs correctly. Is there any problem with using bootcamp and parallels? What determines the partition size for windows?

Thanks

 

There shouldn't be any problems with using Boot Camp and Parallels.

The partition size for Windows can be any size you want.

First you need a Windows 7 installation disk.

Then you run Boot Camp Assistant.app located in your Mac's Utilities folder which is in the Applications folder. It has an option to print the instructions. You may want to do that so you can refer to them while you're running Windows. You can also print them to a pdf file so you can read them on your computer. Tell Boot Camp Assistant to create a Windows partition. Select your Mac OS X disk. To create a Windows partition, Boot Camp will shrink the OS X partition. Once the Windows partition is created, Boot Camp will ask you to insert the Windows installation disk and will restart the computer to start the Windows installer.

In the Windows installer, you select the new partition which exists on the disk after the Mac partition and which has the size you specified when it was created.

After Windows is installed, the Mac will boot the Windows partition. Now you can install the Boot Camp drivers which are on the Mac OS X disc.

Once you have Windows working in Boot Camp, you can boot into Mac OS X to setup your Parallels virtual machine.
Go to the Parallels Desktop menu, select File -> New... -> Skip Detection -> Windows 7 -> Custom -> select Processors, select RAM -> Boot Camp Partition -> select the disk containing Windows 7 -> select the Networking type -> Virtual Machine -> select name and location (defaults are good).

 

Thanks, that's very helpful. Sounds fairly straight forward.

One more stupid question though. Should I size the windows partition based on the windows software that I anticipate installing on it? Can files running in windows software be saved on the mac partition?

Thanks again. I appreciate it

 

It's best to keep the Windows software on the Windows partition. Most Windows software installers will install to C:\Program Files by default. It's easier and safer to go with that. It's possible to run executables on a Mac partition but sometimes there's issues. It's like running software from a network drive.

I keep most of my documents on the Mac side except for stuff that I have no use for on the Mac side.

 

What about when it boots in parallels, will it see new hardware? And then what happens when you boot back into boot camp, will it find new hardware again?

 

Yes, Boot Camp and Parallels have different hardware but Parallels Desktop is supposed to handle that so you only need to activate Windows twice.

http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v5/docs/en/Parallels_Desktop_Users_Guide/22241.htm

 

But it seems to me that the type of Windows matters. For instance if you are using an OEM version (I am), it really only accepts one activation at a time. So I would keep getting activation notices when I would switch between Boot Camp and Parallels. I guess it makes sense since Windows "sees" a different processor (cores), RAM, wireless/ethernet MAC and graphics drivers. I did change the MAC address like was suggested, but still got the notices. This may not happen with a full retail version, but it did with my OEM one. So I'm just sticking with Parallels and not accessing it through Boot Camp.