Can parallels be used without BootCamp?

I installed parallels about 3 years ago to run windows 7 on a MacPro and it has worked fine.
I recall setting up a Mac partition and a windows partition on my source hard drive using BootCamp to enable coherence but from what I have read you do not need to use BootCamp.
How does parallels set up the disk partition and manage the required formatting?
Brian

 

Hello Brian,
Yes, you can run Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac with our Bootcamp and you can install Windows on Parallels Desktop fo Mac with out formatting your Mac Hard Disk.
At the time of installation Parallels Will create a file Called " .PVM" , this file will be saved in Documents/Parallels Folder or /Users/Shared/Paralells folder as we defined on the Mac side. PVM stands for Parallels Virtual Machine and it contains the Virtual Hard Disk. Please check the Hard Disks part of the Parallels Desktop 10 User guide to get some basic information about Virtual hard disks http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v10/docs/en_US/Parallels Desktop User's Guide/33140.htm and I recommend you to visit this article with instrucions and video tutorials: http://kb.parallels.com/122673 Please let me know if you have any other questions.