Parallels or VMWare on SR MBP?

[Imbalance]

Hi all

I've had my shiny SR MBP for a while now, it's great

I originally put XP on it using Bootcamp as I needed Windows in a hurry (sigh) but now that I've got some spare time I would rather use it virtualised.

However, I've had problems with both Parallels and VMware:

Neither would load my FAT32 formatted XP installation. So I read somewhere it wasn't supported so I rebooted, converted to NTFS and tried again. No such luck. Parallels AND VMware still wouldn't load the Bootcamp image.

Now, before I waste countless hours of my precious time:

Does anyone have experiences of using Parallels and VMware on the new SR MBPs.. do they both work properly if you install a fresh copy of XP using them? Any performance differences?

All comments welcome.

Thanks

Imb~

 

[opticalserenity]

VMWare Fusion works great for me.

I just open up the vista bootcamp partition and it works great.

 

[richard4339]

I've used Parallels and XP with Bootcamp and without. I used it without for 6 months and never had a problem. However, when using Bootcamp and attempting to use the bootcamp partition, I would have to run a disk check upon startup every single time, be it in Bootcamp or Parallels, and Windows would randomly need to be re-activated.

I finally erased the bootcamp partition and just used the VM HDD again. It works fine once again.

I honestly don't think its so much an issue with Parallels that I was having as much as a Bootcamp issue. But, I don't know. And I haven't even tried Fusion yet.

 

[dusanv]

I tried both and I like Fusion better (better interface, more networking features). Plus it's cheaper right now.

 

[Sbrocket]

I've tired both with my Windows Bootcamp partition for CAD software (NX5), and personally I prefer VMware Fusion. It just seems more fluid and efficient to me than Parallels; Parallels seems to have a Windows-esque software feel to it for me, like its unstable and patched together code.

 

[Gandhi]

Another vote for Fusion. Tried both, Fusion is faster and has a better interface and is easier to use and set up VMs.

And the price for Fusion is better through August as well

 

[aaronw1986]

Is there any way to get a Start menu using Unity? I know Parallels has something to do this. I would rather use Fusion, as I trust vmware, and half the price right now!

 

[After G]

Hi all

I've had my shiny SR MBP for a while now, it's great

I originally put XP on it using Bootcamp as I needed Windows in a hurry (sigh) but now that I've got some spare time I would rather use it virtualised.

However, I've had problems with both Parallels and VMware:

Neither would load my FAT32 formatted XP installation. So I read somewhere it wasn't supported so I rebooted, converted to NTFS and tried again. No such luck. Parallels AND VMware still wouldn't load the Bootcamp image.

Now, before I waste countless hours of my precious time:

Does anyone have experiences of using Parallels and VMware on the new SR MBPs.. do they both work properly if you install a fresh copy of XP using them? Any performance differences?

All comments welcome.

Thanks

Imb~

I had this problem a while back...

Make sure you have a sp2.cab file in your Windows installation before trying to run virtualized from your Boot Camp. Mine is located in C:\Windows\Driver Cache\i386\sp2.cab. I think you can make a copy of the driver.cab file that should already be in there and name it sp2.cab.

I am running virtualized from my Boot Camp partition (both VMware and Parallels) with a FAT32 partition so the partition format isn't the issue.