Converting to fixed size virtual drive

I'm told that using a fixed size virtual drive will improve the performance of my Windows virtual machine but I can't find any way to do this other than the option that apparently destroys the current drive. What am I missing?

Secondly, I'm told that creating a separate fixed size virtual drive and using it solely for swap space (Windows paging file) will also improve performance. I'm not quite sure why this is the case as I would still be using a single physical hard drive so I'd be interested to know how much performance improvement I could expect, i.e, is it worth doing this?

Thanks,
David Jameson

 

Please backup VM simply copying VM folder.
Use Parallels Image Tools from Applications/Parallels and convert expanded to fixed, but this will not give you much performance, try to follow steps bellow:

1. Set memory for Virtual Machine to less than 1 GB
2. Perform Mac and Windows side disk defragmentation http://www.xvsxp.com/system/system_tools_defrag.php
3. Set Adjust memory limit from Auto to Manual at Parallels Desktop -Preferences-Memory, and set limit a bit more higher than VM memory
4. Disable Themes in Windows XP serives.msc stop Themes service
5. If you are running in Coherence, try to switch to Single Window, or lower Mac resolution
6. Some antivirus software can load CPU when Heuristic Prediction is set, or Tamper protection (Symantec, MacAffey), adjust settings to risk you are supposed, high security settings is not always good idea, as it can also affect software running
7. Run msconfig , and disable unneeded startup items
See http://www.netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_xp.html
8. Make sure that no VNC,or remote desktop connection is established to Mac, this can slowdown Parallels Desktop
9. Optimize computer experience for best performance
10. Make sure that at least 1.25 GB of Memory is free for Mac OS (it is Total Memory - Virtual Machine Memory)
11. Make sure that at least 2 GB +Virtual Machine assigned memory *2 is available on Mac OS partition where VM is located

 

Thank you very much for helpful tips