Is running a VMware Fusion windows VM from a bootcamp partition faster?

Question

Is running a VMware Fusion windows VM from a bootcamp partition faster than using a virtual drive? If so, is the difference dramatic or just 5-10%

Answer 1

The answer provided by http://twitter.com/vmwarefusion is "It will be MUCH faster from a virtual HD. Also, you can't suspend, resume, or snapshot a real disk partition."

Answer 2

I don't know the right answer but I would imagine it would be faster since it read and writes to an actual hard vice a virtual disk. I would be surprised if the benefit were that dramatic though. Keep in mind that with the Boot Camp option you lose the ability to suspend or snap shot a running system. I would recommend you asking the VMware Fusion twitter account, for an official answer

Answer 3

From experience it causes nothing but problems. If you ever need to boot to your Bootcamp partition you'll spend 20 minutes fiddling to get it Network/Wireless/Screen Res/Mouse restored because of the VMWare Tools install..

IMO it's easier to just use the VM as a virtual partition..

Answer 4

It will be a tiny bit faster. "Raw disk mode" is what running directly from a partition or device is called and there's a bit less software in between the VM disk writes and the physical disk. In practice I don't think you would notice running just a single VM.