Various Newbie Qs - including re 64 bit VISTA on Parallels?

I am brand new to the Mac. (So new, that I am still posting from my old PC.) I have a new Black Macbook 2.2Ghz w/4GB RAM & a 250GB hard drive & Leopard. I have a sealed copy of Parallels Desktop 3.0 & a sealed copy of VISTA Ulitmate. I will likely spend a lot of my computing time on my new Mac still in Windows. I plan to install & use VISTA under both Bootcamp & Parallels. (Note, though some people suggest sticking w/XP for Bootcamp instead of using VISTA, I only have a pre-SP2 version of XP, which I understand cannot be installed on Bootcamp.)

- I understand that for Bootcamp I must partition my drive and for VISTA the partition must be NTFS, which I also understand Leopard can not fully recognize or use... I also understand that once partitioned, the size of the partiions cannot later be dynamically changed - which means I need to partition the drive before I have any real experience with what my real needs will be... I do know that on my current PC, I have about 60GB of hard drive space filled with PC programs & data, all of which I will want to transfer to the Mac. Much of the data - esepecially thousands of .jpg photos which I have well-organized in PC file folders (and which I want to keep that way) - I will want to be able to access using both Windows and Mac programs.


- Does VISTA running in Parallels use just the NTFS Partition (which is the Bootcamp VISTA partition), or does VISTA running in Parallels use just the Leopard Partition, or can VISTA running in Parallels use either partition?

- Any suggestions as to partition sizes (& types?) on my Mac's 250GB hard drive?

- I understand the 64 bit version of VISTA will not install under Bootcamp and that only the 32 bit version of VISA will install under Bootcamp. Will the 64 bit version of VISTA install on Parallels? If so, can I install the 32 bit version of VISTA under Bootcamp and the 64 bit version of VISTA under Parallels, or can I only install one version of VISTA?

- Any other recommendations or advise would also be welcome!

Thanks,
r-gordon-7

 

1. parallels can only use 32-bit OSs, though i believe they are working on 64-bit support. VM Ware supports 64-bit OSs.

2. i had not heard that boot camp only supports 32-bit vista. but then i don't use bootcamp. i have played around with installing vista 32-bit on bootcamp with no issues. runs MUCH better than under parallels.

3. supposedly you can install vista in bootcamp and then start up parallels and run it by pointing to the bootcamp installation. i had mixed results when trying that with xp.

4. correct, os x can only read data on ntfs but not write.

5. sounds like maybe you should get a shared drive and format it as FAT. keep the data you want to share on that drive or use a networked drive to store common files. conversely, vista can't even read data on HFS+ drives without 3rd party support. (MacDrive)

6. you'll want to remember that unless you have multiple licenses for vista, you can only install it on "one" computer. in other words you can't install vista in parallels and then create a completely separate parallels instance. your key only works on one computer. (unless you have an MSDN subscription then nevermind #6)