Install VM on Boot Camp or not?

[durian]

OK, so I have XP Home running natively set up on Boot Camp. Now for my virtual XP, do I want to set it up on the Boot Camp partition or create a VM on the Mac side? Most everyone seems to be talking about the first option. If that is the way to go, I would sure like to know why? It seems like I will still have to install any apps I want to use with both twice. Is there some resource sharing advantage I don't know about? Any thoughts/explanations appreciated. Once I understand this, I will ask my bigger question, regarding how do I fix the mess I made when I first tried this.

Sorry about being so scattered. I will try again...

Since no one has responded, I will explain the larger problem, in the hope that it will be of interest. Again, Boot Camp and XP all going just swell. Also installed Fusion on Boot Camp. Again swell. But then I realized I had not partitioned my new Mac, so I did. Using Disk utility, I split the Mac drive into two parts (OS X and Data). Had to reinstall (and reformat BC partition) XP on Boot Camp. Fusion XP, of course, bombed. See screen shots.

Well, since then, I deleted the Virtual Machine on Boot Camp (once I found it), so XP will now boot on the Boot Camp VM, but oddly (stuck cursor, etc. and can't select outside the XP window). Still wants me to install VMware tools. But when I try to, it just sits there. Nothing. Honestly, I would just like to start over, but I do not know enough to be able to get rid of everything and take it back to zero (unless I totally reformat...not a pleasant option.

Oh, and by the way, Boot Camp Assistant won't let me do anything to the Boot Camp partition now. So I can't just get rid of it and start over.

I think I made a big mess. Suggestions?

[durian]

No replies to my post, so it must have been pretty awful. But I managed to fix it my self. The repartitioning of the OSX partition into two pieces must have affected the Boot Camp partition, even though theoretically, it was untouched. It broke both my Boot Camp XP and my original VM XP on Boot Camp. So I hade to (1) reinstall XP in Boot Camp from scratch (2) delete my original Boot Camp virtual machine, an important part that I missed initially (3) create a new vitual machine using the Boot Camp partition automatically detected. It all works great now, and there does seem to be some economy running this way, as opposed to creating a virtual machine on the Mac side.

Now that it is all done, I am not sure I even really need it, but I just like the idea that I CAN get into XP either way if I want to. Maybe this post will help someone else

iMac 20" Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz 4GB RAM Leopard & XP Home

[srvance]

I'm running Vista from a Boot Camp partition. I always end up running it from VMware instead of booting into Boot Camp, and I really regret setting it up as a Boot Camp partition. I'm not doing anything that hits the performance weaknesses (e.g. gaming) and now I have to enter my admin password every time I boot, I can't suspend the guest OS, and I have a huge chunk of my hard drive allocated but not being used. I'm browsing the forums right now checking out ways to migrate the install from Boot Camp to a virtual disk. (That's not an oblique way to ask for an answer. I think I've found it and just need to clear the time to try it.)