Parallels - Disk Access

Question

I have a MacBook Pro. I'm interested in running Windows. I've considered using Bootcamp, but it doesn't meet my needs. This lead me to consider Parallels.

My question is, is Parallels a Virtual Machine? Or, does it setup a separate disk partition? If I run Parallels from Mac OSX, can my Windows environment access my Mac OS X hard drive? I'm trying to understand how to Parallels runs Windows within Mac OS X. The reason I need to know if because I have a variety of technical needs that I'm trying to weigh in my decision.

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hardware emulation virtualization software.

Typically an hypervisor allows access to predefined shared folders between the host and the guest (Virtual Machine). Limitations may apply depending on the guest OS.

Depending on the actual "technical needs", undisclosed in your question, virtualization may not be what you're looking for.

A sophisticated boot manager like rEFInd is often recommended for multibooting in an Apple desktop.