Run Parallels Windows VM in Boot Camp? (or just boot it)

Hey all - I have a VM of Windows Vista in my Parallels 3 (going to upgrade to 4 soon, if that makes a difference), and I need to run it a la Boot Camp so I don't have all of the Mac memory getting in the way of more graphics-intensive PC games I want to play. I've read a lot about using an existing Boot Camp partition for a VM, but is there a way to do the opposite - use an existing VM for a Boot Camp partition, or does Parallels have a way to boot into Windows itself?

I'd really like to not have to create two separate Windows installations, one for Parallels and one for Boot Camp (the 18 GB virtual HD is way more memory than I'd like to spend, anyway!).

 

In theory it is possible
In short steps are as following
1. Use backup to backup all data files and system state in Vm
2. Restore to Boot Camp
3. Perform Windows repair.
But it will take more time, than simply reinstalling applications

 

Thanks! But I'm a bit confused...

Most importantly, will doing this allow me to use the same VM for both Boot Camp and Parallels? I want to be able to use both Boot Camp and Parallels, without having two separate Vista installations.

As for the steps...how do I restore a backup to Boot Camp? Does backing up entail anything besides just copying the VM file?

 

No there is special backup utilty in Vista
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/New-Improved-NTBACKUP-Program.html

Please just make sure that you understand procedure,before doing, otherwise you can corrupt Vista installation in Boot Camp
Parallels doesn't support this procedure, and my description is solely my own initiative

 

Thanks!

More importantly, though, I'm still confused - will doing this allow me to run Windows in Parallel and Boot Camp using the same partition, or do I always need to have separate partitions/VMs for the two?

 

If you do this correctly, it will allow to run Boot Camp and VM in the same partition,
Just want you to notify, we do not support such transition,and you are doing it on your own risk

 

Thanks! One last thing...what do you mean by "Restore to Boot Camp"?

 

When you do backup of VM, it will be a file, you need to copy it to external disk, and then use restore operation for that backup
Please check link I provided earlier for more details

 

I am looking to do something similar but with windows xp? is this possible?