[jw8725]

Which would be the best method to go if I wished to run XP inside of Leopard in Parallels?

And is there a basic guide on this procedure? Thanks

[aimfire]

Well, first you have to get and install the Parallels program.
From within Parallels, you would install XP into that. It's fairly simple...
http://www.parallels.com/

Other people like VMWare Fusion, which is basically the same thing, just a matter of preference. That's what I use.
http://vmware.com/products/fusion/

[UnaClocker]

With Parallels, you can get a trial install key, to use the program for free. And once it's installed, you simply run it. You tell it you want to install XP, it'll ask you to put in the CD (you'll need a .ISO image of the CD, or a USB CD-Rom drive hooked up), it'll ask for your CD key, and it'll do the install for you. It's quite automated, quite simple.

[aimfire]

VMWare Fusion also offers a free trial if you're interested in trying that.

[jw8725]

Thanks for the replies guys, you might want to have a read of this:

http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20081001/on ... ot-better/

[kd5ftn]

VirtualBox is like Parallels and VMWare but it's free, open-source software.
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/VirtualBox

I haven't tried it yet, but just downloaded it. I'm going to wait a few days so I can upgrade my memory to 2GB first.

[UnaClocker]

I have VirtualBox on my main OSX machine. I can't even finish the XP install, it crashes all the time. Good luck getting it to work.

[Rekutyn]

VMware has my vote. The nice thing about VMware over Parallels is that you can stick XP on a physical partition and load it either within OS X or as its own natively bootable OS (with Bootcamp setup). I'm not sure how this works on the Mini, but I expect with a well-configured Boot loader it can be done.

[UnaClocker]

Eh.. Then you have a predetermined amount of space wasted. With a drive image, rather than partition, it expands as you write more data (install more apps) to it. So it only uses a bare minimum of space.
I am glad to hear VMWare fixed it's cut and paste problem. That and not being able to drag files from Win to OSX and vice versa is what sold me on Parallels over them. That's the benefit of competition. VMWare has been around a lot longer than Parallels, but they were still able to overcome them.

[Rekutyn]

I've been using VMware (Fusion, Server, Player, etc...) on Windows, Mac, and Linux for quite some time. I think so long as you have VMware Tools installed in the Guest OS then there won't be any problem with dragging files. It only supports XP or less and some versions of Linux. As far as the dual partition method I described, you would be best served by putting a bare-minimum XP install on that partition and keep your Applications and Documents in a 3rd partition that can be read by both OS X and Windows. Then you truly have the best of both worlds.