Installling VB on root or partition?

[maxgpcpi]

I have a customized laptop (i5 @2.6GhZ, 8GB DDR3, 500GB 7200RPM, M480GPU Win 7 64). In installing Vbox, I was wondering if people thought it would be better to run the guest OS (win 32 bit) on a separate partition or within the same partition as my Win 7 64? Right now I have a 100GB Part for Win 7 64, 350GB for data and driver files, 20 GB Partition open. I tried to see what people recommended in running the guest OS and don't know if I'm reading it right. I only need the 32 bit OS for ONE program so I don't want to allocate a ton of space for it. Should I have merged the 20 GB partition into my C drive (with Win 64) or install my VM 32 bit OS into the 20 GB partition? Right now Vbox is installed in my 100GB partition. But I haven't installed the 32 bit OS yet.

[noteirak]

To give you an idea, Windows 7 takes 15GB alone, after a fresh install. That doesn't include updates.
so even with a single program, 20 GB seems too short for me, so I would recommend merging it.

[maxgpcpi]

To give you an idea, Windows 7 takes 15GB alone, after a fresh install. That doesn't include updates.
so even with a single program, 20 GB seems too short for me, so I would recommend merging it.

Windows 7 64 is already installed. That's what I'm working on right now. This is on the 100GB partition. The guest OS I have to add is XP. I just need any 32 bit OS for the 16bit program. With this new info, would your recommendations change?

[noteirak]

Oh if you want to install XP, 20 GB is more than enough.

[maxgpcpi]

Oh if you want to install XP, 20 GB is more than enough.

in running Vbox, would it run smoother if the guest OS was on the same partition as the primary or does that not matter?

[noteirak]

The closer bits of data are from each other, the faster it will be, yes (for regular drives). The fact of using a partition can only slow down things for sure.
But that's irrelevant of which software you run.