VM Fusion memory needs on a Mac with Windows

[Markcw98]

Hi.  I am new to the forum and just loaded a copy of the trial software this Friday.   I have a 24" iMac (intel based, early 2009).   The Mac is running Lion.  Before the evaluation I had already loaded a Windows partition(Win 7 Pro) with Bootcamp, using about 75GB of space.   I am trying to figure out if I need to have a separate Windows partition to run vm fusion and windows.   I would appreciate keeping one partition for the Mac and just running Windows in a purely virtual environment.   If that is possible, what are the tradeoffs doing that?   The way I have it now, I cannot reclaim any of the actual hard drive space reserved for Windows if I am running low on space for the Mac OS (which is what is happening right now).   Is the execution speed impacted more in a virtual environment?   Those are some of the concerns.   I would appreciate any pointers.   Thanks.

Mark

[weinstein5]

Welcome to the Community - Fusion does no need a Windows partion - it creates a file within the MAC filesystem with an extension of VMDK - this VMDK files is used as the virtual disk and is where windows gets installed and all the read and writes occur so you do nnot need touch your existing disk configuration on you MAC

[Markcw98]

David

Thanks for the quick response.   I had thought it would not require a separate partition.  In my case, I already have a 90GB Win partition created and already installed Win 7 on it.   The rest of the drive is Mac OS Extended (Journaled), giving me 550MB to use.   Regretfully, I am down to 13GB left.   I am inclined to remove the bootcamp partition and reinstall Win 7 virtually.   I should be able to reclaim quite a bit of space.  

Two more questions, if I may.  Do you have any experience with the type of config that I currently have (using a separate partition).

1-  Do you know if Fusion creates this virtual space even if I have a separate partition?  Is less space required, ie, does it use the Win files that are in the  Boot camp partition- or is it creating copies?  

2-  Is there a speed or response benefit- or any other benefits that would encourage me to keep it that way?   The only one I see right now is that I can reboot the computer as Windows only- which should be faster.   Also, if I decide not to keep Fusion, I will still be able to boot in Windows.   

Thanks.  

Mark