Migrate xp from boot camp on one computer to parallels on another?

October 24, 2007 10:26 PM

How do I migrate a boot camp xp partition on one computer to another computer with parallels installed?

Parallels won't let me use the transporter from xp in the boot camp partition--is there a way to migrate my whole xp user environment (programs, settings and files, or at least programs) or do I have to reinstall everything in parallels on the new computer? The only information I can find is on migrating between a partition on a single computer. Help!

posted by mandymanwasregistered to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

The easiest way to do this is to first install Parallels (v3) onto the Mac with Boot Camp and configure it to use your Boot Camp partition. Once that is done, add a new virtual disk to your Parallels configuration and clone your boot camp partition to it.

The following details were adapted from the Parallels support forum.

1. Add a second virtual disk to your Boot Camp configuration in parallels (At least as large as your Boot Camp partition).
2. Boot into windows and format the disk to match your Boot Camp (NTFS in my case).
3. Use XXCLONE in windows to clone your Boot Camp partition to your new disk.
4. Use XXCLONE to make the new disk bootable and copy the disks volume identifier.
5. Copy the boot.ini from the boot camp partition to the new disk.
6. Copy the new virtual disk to your non-Boot Camp computer.
7. Create a new Parallels configuration (using v3!) to boot off the new disk.

posted by pmbuko at 5:45 AM on October 25, 2007

I used Transporter to migrate from Boot Camp to a virtual disk on the same machine. This was in 2.x, but I can't imagine that part has been disabled. So, I'd advise:

- Mount Machine B in Target Mode and connect it to Machine A. Using Parallels on Machine A, create a new virtual disk on Machine B's drive and use Transporter.

- If that doesn't work, and you've got enough local space on Machine A, create a new virtual disk and use Transporter, then just copy the disk image to Machine B.
posted by mkultra at 6:59 AM on October 25, 2007

Oh wait, perhaps I'm misreading the question- are you going Boot Camp to Boot Camp?
posted by mkultra at 7:00 AM on October 25, 2007

Response by poster: Boot Camp on one machine to Parallels on the other. Thanks for the advice pmbuko, I'll give that a try tonight.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 9:25 AM on October 25, 2007

You might also try the steps detailed in this thread on the Parallels support forums.
posted by pmbuko at 5:48 PM on October 25, 2007

Let me rephrase that. Try those steps first. It's probably quicker.
posted by pmbuko at 5:49 PM on October 25, 2007