Parallels Question

[Wilden]

I was thinking of breaking up my old pc and salvaging the hard drive for use with my Macbook. If I connect it though either firewire or usb will I be able to boot the current XP install off it using parallels, or will I have to install a new version of XP onto it though parallels.
I really don't want to be shelling out £100 or so for a copy of XP.

Thanks
Wilden

[balamw]

I was thinking of breaking up my old pc and salvaging the hard drive for use with my Macbook. If I connect it though either firewire or usb will I be able to boot the current XP install off it using parallels, or will I have to install a new version of XP onto it though parallels.
I really don't want to be shelling out £100 or so for a copy of XP.

You stand a better chance of booting your old drive from Boot Camp than Parallels, but your EULA probably doesn't allow for transferring the license from one machine to another.

B

[Wilden]

I've checked on bootcamp, you can't boot from an external drive, or that's what it says on the Apple website anyway.

[balamw]

I've checked on bootcamp, you can't boot from an external drive, or that's what it says on the Apple website anyway.
Not quite: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=191777

It can be done, but is non-trivial which is why Apple doesn't suggest it.

B

[DavidLeblond]

You stand a better chance of booting your old drive from Boot Camp than Parallels, but your EULA probably doesn't allow for transferring the license from one machine to another.

B

Bah, EULA shmeula. I've had one single copy of Windows XP ever since its come out and its been on about 5 different computers (not at the same time, still legal)... all you have to do is call up MS and say "pretty please activate it" and they do. :)

[Wilden]

Excellent, thanks for that link balamw, I just need to know now if BootCamp will allow me to boot windows without actually installing it, as in it already being on the HDD.

[balamw]

Excellent, thanks for that link balamw, I just need to know now if BootCamp will allow me to boot windows without actually installing it, as in it already being on the HDD.
You are certainly best off installing it from scratch, since you'll need the USB boot hack, but you should be able to tweak the other drivers after the fact, boot in safe mode and replace the drivers with those from the Boot Camp download.

As DavidLeblond points out MS doesn't always enforce their own EULA.

B

[Shadow]

Bah, EULA shmeula. I've had one single copy of Windows XP ever since its come out and its been on about 5 different computers (not at the same time, still legal)... all you have to do is call up MS and say "pretty please activate it" and they do. :)
I just wrote down the code. That way, I dont have to give money to MS :). And, I can just use the same code every time I reinstall XP :p.

[DavidLeblond]

I just wrote down the code. That way, I dont have to give money to MS :). And, I can just use the same code every time I reinstall XP :p.

The activation code?

Uh, doesn't that change every time you install it on a different machine though?

[Shadow]

The activation code?

Uh, doesn't that change every time you install it on a different machine though?
Dunno, maybe. Even if it does change, no harm done.