Virtual machine file access performance

Question

My coding environment (Visual Studio) is in a virtual machine (Parallels on OS X). Which method of file access would be faster?

• Put the files on the VM's disk. (Can the VM manipulate files faster if it's all internal?)
• Put the files on the host machine. (Would file access be faster without the additional layer of abstraction?)

For the sake of this question, the only goal is fast file reading, writing, and creation from within Visual Studio -- as opposed to the concerns of not being able to return to snapshots when the files are on the host and as opposed to prioritizing for more general programs that wouldn't involve all of the compiling and creating/deleting files (.dll .pdb etc.).

Answer 1

If it is that important, then you should do a benchmark test comparing the 2. My feeling is that within the VM will be faster. You are still abstracting through the network layer to go through the VM->Host, and you are still paying the penalty of writing it to disk.