Is there no need for macdrive if I have parallels

[tobs744]

I'm thinking of buying macdrive but ill probably just get parallels if parallels does everything that macdrive can do and obviously more.

Also is parallels still regarded by most as the best option over fusion?

Thanks in advance

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

I'm thinking of buying macdrive but ill probably just get parallels if parallels does everything that macdrive can do and obviously more.

Well, not exactly. You are correct that there is no need for MacDrive in a Windows VM under OS X. Neither Parallels Desktop for Mac nor VMware Fusion include HFS+ drivers for Windows, but both allow you to map Mac OS X volumes and directories so they can be accessed by their VMs. Parallels goes a step further in the opposite direction as well, by including reasonably friendly tools to access the files that are stored within the VMs while in Mac OS X.

But, if you boot in Boot Camp, without MacDrive, you will not see your Mac volumes.

Also is parallels still regarded by most as the best option over fusion?

That's a bit of a religious battle. Here's a short overview, which includes a link to a reasonably good comparison of the two in a Wikipedia article: Boot Camp, CrossOver, Parallels, VMware Fusion in three bullet points each!

I personally use VMware Fusion, but I have a powerful Mac and can run dual CPU cores in a VM, 64-bit Windows and use 4GB+ RAM in a VM now and then, all three things Parallels Desktop cannot do. I also sometimes need 64-bit Solaris, which VMware runs like a champ, and Parallels cannot. I also find VMware much smoother with fewer hiccups. But my needs (and my Mac) may not match yours.

I do think the cross-OS launching features in Parallels (which you can do in VMware, but it it's not straightforward at all) are really, really nifty and truly a differentiator. Parallels is clearly trying to be different here, and I think in some way successfully, with Windows-to-OS X integration and trying to blur the lines between the operating systems so the user doesn't notice or care. Really neat. But, from a technical perspective when you get into the VM technology itself, VMware is significantly more mature and capable from the virtual hardware to the virtual scheduling. That's why VMware is the standard in most Enterprise IT shops even over totally free competitive products from Microsoft.

 

[svgeek]

There are some advantages to _not_ using Boot Camp: you can suspend your virtual machine.

I started off using Fusion and have switched over to Parallels.

Fusion is great but Parallels provides a must tighter integration so you don't have to care which OS you are running. All you need to worry about is which application you want to use to open a document with and Parallels will take care of the rest, including launching the Windows VM if necessary.

If the VM is suspended, resuming it on my MacBook takes less than 10 seconds so the experience is truly like running a native Mac application.