Is parallel save enough

[urgyen7]

Hi guys

I´m using parallel with windows xp on my imac17" 2Ghz 1GB Ram 160Gb.

The question:- is it save to do work like book-keeping ( the software which i have runs only on windows). I´m afraid i may loose all the work. my Parallel did few times disappear and i had to start all over again. is this situation familiar to anybody, and if someone has suggestion to make it work consistant. For the moment, i dont feel very safe with it.

Secondly when i conect an external HD while parallel is open. the messege shows up saying ".usb drive u r trrying to conect to virtual mashine is used by another process wait 5 - 1o seconds" but nothing happens and m not using anything else which is stoping the work.


Thirdly. how big is the hard disk. when i click the "property page view" it shows 8000 MB users /name/library/parallel/winxp. m i using the same macs hard disk space. I´m very concern about the space of my VM. so everytime i try not to download or install anything unless its very important.

Any suggestions welcome
Thank you
Urgyen

[AussieSusan]

Hi guys

I´m using parallel with windows xp on my imac17" 2Ghz 1GB Ram 160Gb.

The question:- is it save to do work like book-keeping ( the software which i have runs only on windows). I´m afraid i may loose all the work. my Parallel did few times disappear and i had to start all over again. is this situation familiar to anybody, and if someone has suggestion to make it work consistant. For the moment, i dont feel very safe with it.

Secondly when i conect an external HD while parallel is open. the messege shows up saying ".usb drive u r trrying to conect to virtual mashine is used by another process wait 5 - 1o seconds" but nothing happens and m not using anything else which is stoping the work.


Thirdly. how big is the hard disk. when i click the "property page view" it shows 8000 MB users /name/library/parallel/winxp. m i using the same macs hard disk space. I´m very concern about the space of my VM. so everytime i try not to download or install anything unless its very important.

Any suggestions welcome
Thank you
Urgyen

My experience with Parallels has been very good. I'm not sure what you mean by 'disappears'. Unless you deliberately delete the Parallels application and/or the virtual machine files, I don't think there is much to do with Parallels disappearing that would not effect any other files on your system. If you mean that Parallels corrupts the virtual hard drive, then I can only go by my experience which is that I've not seen this happen. Perhaps you could let us have a few more details about this part.

As for connecting other devices, make sure that you tell Parallels about the other devices so that it can arbitrate between the host and virtual OS's. Parallels has various icons on bottom of the window border as well as menu options that allow this to occur.

Finally, the size of the hard drive is determined by preference settings within Parallels. However with a Windows virtual OS it is not as simple as setting a larger virtual disk size. I suggest that you look at the Parallels forum for (a number of) entries on how to resize the hard disk - it is not hard but you do have to follow the instructions carefully and use a backed-up version of the virtual hard disk. The size of the virtual hard disk is a balance between making sure that the virtual OS has enough space to work on, and you do not use excessive amounts of the host disk drive. Parallels allows you to have a disk drive that the virtual OS sees as a fixed (large) size, but only takes as much space on the host disk as it needs at that time - I think this is the default setting.

One more thing - I have a very similar config to yours except that I add an extra 1GB of memory (total 2GB) - I received a noticeable improvement in the performance of my whole system and I would recommend this to anyone. It also lets you give the virtual OS a reasonable amount of 'memory' to work with without adversely impacting on the rest of the system.

I use Windows running in Parallels for some apps that are very important to me and my clients that I cannot move on to the Mac itself. Provided you employ the proper levels of anti-virus protection etc. on the Windows OS (it is still Windows after all) and backup the host disk, then I feel confident in using this as a reliable arrangement.

Hope this helps

Susan

[privateer - 1]

Parallels is absolutely safe to use, don't be afraid. I have been using it for a long time and I didn't suffer any data loss since then, that would be caused by the program itself.
All you need to do, if you want to save data and nerves - backup! Just backup - this is the rule of the thumb:)

[specter]

Hi guys

I´m using parallel with windows xp on my imac17" 2Ghz 1GB Ram 160Gb.

Urgyen
You will definitely be more happy with Parallels if you get an extra 1GB RAM stick! Parallels will work times faster with 2 Gigs.