Advice on new Fusion installation vs BootCamp

[nauticalmac]

(Intel Mac Mini, OS X 10.5 Windows XP)

I just installed Fusion and started running using my BootCamp partition and discovered:

Some features I would like are not available with this configuration (e.g. Suspend)

A mildly annoying bug where hiding the Fusion app (Command-H) disables the menu bar when it is 'unhid' (it will come back on Cmnd-Tabbing to another app and back)

So I'm thinking of eliminating the BootCamp partition and just using Fusion.

1. Is there a reliable way to do this without uninstalling BootCamp and doing a complete new XP install?

2. Any experience - based advice on the merits (reliability) of running with only Fusion? We absolutely need to run MS Access and Publisher for our business 25% of the time.

Tx

[jim_gill]

With Fusion 2.0, you can import your Boot Camp partition into a virtual machine. By dong so, you gain the ability to suspend the VM and take (multiple, if you like) snapshots. All of your programs and data will be preserved. The functionality and performance of the VM will be unchanged.

Importing the Boot Camp partition makes a copy of it -- your Boot Camp partition will be left in place until you use Apple's Boot Camp utility to recover the disk space.

[nauticalmac]

Thanks for your help, Jim,

Will the BootCamp partition remain bootable as a 'backup' installation I can resort to if I have trouble with the VM, recognizing it will not have run so be potentially out of date? Just looking for a safety net in case of Fusion 2 issues as it is a new release. All PC working files are stored on another server, just need to guarantee the ability to run the MS apps.

Then I can reclaim it after a few months of operation.

[jim_gill · Accepted solution]

Yes, your Boot Camp partition remains bootable (and usable within Fusion as well), so it can be left in place as a safety net until you're completely satisfied.

[admin]

Yes, your Boot Camp partition will still be usable (but as you correctly realized, it won't be in sync).