Using existing XP install in Parrallels

[Dhelsdon]

Hi,

Just curious if this is possible.. Hypothetically could I clone a disk running windows XP (Work PC) onto an external drive, and run that through Parrallels?

My guess is no, the people on the Parallels forum are unresponsive and I can't use a fresh install because there is so much software and settings I need to retain.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Dhelsdon]

Could I do this with bootcamp, then use my SL disk for drivers?

ie: Boot from the external cloned disk into windows and then install drivers, or is it more complicated then that?

 

[Phil Lee]

Neither scenario would work. There are specific device drivers related to Bootcamp and the Parallels VM which would not be present on your PC install of XP.

 

[Dhelsdon]

The plan

I'll try taking a backup from Arconis, then doing a fresh install and restore from the backup.. I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work?

 

[ZBoater]

I'll try taking a backup from Arconis, then doing a fresh install and restore from the backup.. I don't see any reason why that wouldn't work?

Ummmm, use Acronis to restore onto a VM? No. It wouldn't even work restoring onto a real disk, as Acronis doesn't understand the Mac partitions and will likely end up damaging your boot partition.

Restoring a backup (Acronis or Windows backup) from another computer onto your MBA would likely not work since you would be restoring all your original drivers. IF it would boot (which I doubt) then you could reinstall all the drivers.

 

[Dhelsdon]

Ummmm, use Acronis to restore onto a VM? No. It wouldn't even work restoring onto a real disk, as Acronis doesn't understand the Mac partitions and will likely end up damaging your boot partition.

Restoring a backup (Acronis or Windows backup) from another computer onto your MBA would likely not work since you would be restoring all your original drivers. IF it would boot (which I doubt) then you could reinstall all the drivers.

What I ended up doing what using VMware's free conversion tool. It converts a physical hard disk to a VM. I am now using VMware Fusion to run my work pc. All went daily smoothly.. I had to reactivate xp, and most of the software but thats not a big deal. No problems with drivers or anything, I just used the VMware Installation tool after I booted then it picked up all the drivers. Had to delete all the peripherals prior to this, because it carried it over. After I deleted them everything worked great!

Here's a link to the software I used - VMware vCenter Converter