What have more performance, a virtualized Boot Camp partion or a virtual hard drive? I need to virtualize some Windows applications (I will use Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion). I have to options:


To install Windows in a partition using Boot Camp and virtualize this
partition from Mac OS.
To create a virtual hard drive, install
Windows in it, and virtualize it from Mac OS.


I know that if I proceed with the first option, I will be able to boot into Windows if I want, and the changes made will be bidirectional.

But, my question is: What method offers more performance, virtualize a Boot Camp partion or virtualize a virtual hard drive? I don't think, I will need to natively boot Windows. So, that is not an advantage for me.

EDIT: Ok, I did some tests and I can tell you a virtual hard drive feels way faster than a bootcamp partition. So if you really don't care about natively booting Windows, create a virtual hard drive. Besides speed, you will gain the very handy suspend and wake from suspend capability.
As I state above and based on my own tests, running Windows in a virtual hard drive is faster than doing it from the Boot Camp partition.