Comments on: Comprehensive XP -> Parallels migration

Question: Comprehensive XP -> Parallels migration

maniabug — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:12:27 -0800

What's the most efficient way to transfer an entire functioning Windows XP PC to my new Mac running Parallels?

I'm looking to ship over the whole nine yards: files, settings, apps, and appropriate registry entries. The Windows File and Settings Transfer Wizard does not move the apps. I'm going to have to do this on a regular basis, and would prefer to do as little by hand as possible. Do you have a favorite software tool for this?

I considered imaging the hard drive, but I believe Parallels uses a proprietary image format.

By: majick

majick — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:38:12 -0800

If you want to migrate the entire install, you could consider doing some combination of BartPE P2V and sysprep.

The BartPE P2V tool has some VMWare specific bits in it that you can safely ignore. I've used it to migrate physical machines to both VMWare and Virtual PC for Macintosh. It might take some experimentation to get it working under Parallels -- I don't know the specifics of the emulated environment they provide -- but it shouldn't be difficult. The hardest part for me was chasing down a copy of Ghost 8.0 to run under BartPE.

By: Steve3

Steve3 — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 10:49:28 -0800

Check out this link in the Parallels forum.

By: maniabug

maniabug — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:43:53 -0800

Thanks Steve3 I missed that post. It seems like quite a procedure, and I'm not thrilled about giving up the expandable HD image. I might just give Move Me a try first, that seems to have been reasonably well reviewed.