How I migrated my Boot Camp setup into Parallels...

[colddiver]

Yes, you read correctly. I did it and it works but it was a painful process.

The challenges are as follows:
1. Backup your Boot Camp partition and convert it into a VM .hdd file.
2. Repair your Windows install so that it can work under the significant hardware change

The process is as follows:
1. Boot on Windows and clone your drive (I used the evaluation version of Snapshop (http://www.drivesnapshot.de/en/)
1.1. You will need lots of disk space for this. In my case I had to save the snapshop files on my mac partition (through MacDrive)
1.2. This snapshot file will have to be made available to a Parallels VM so put is somewhere you can share it through Parallels Shared Folders.
2. Create a new virtual machine in Parallels and install Windows on it. Once it boots, install Snapshop.
2.1 Configure "Shared Folders" to make your snapshop files available to your new VM.
3. Create a new HD for your newly created virtual machine. Make sure it is as big (or bigger) than your Boot Camp partition.
4. Configure the new drive within Windows. For XP, instructions are available here: http://blog.kevindonahue.com/archives/2004/04/how_to_install_addit.php
5. Once your new virtual drive is available, open Snapshop and restore your Boot Camp cloned drived onto your 2nd hard drive.
6. Create a new Parallels VM that will use your virtual HD that now contains your restored Boot Camp partition.
7. You are not out of the wood yet... If you try to boot the new VM, it won't work. You need to boot from your Windows install CD and and enter the repair console to repair your Boot.ini file. Instructions on how to do this are here (follow method 2): http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314477/
8. After doing this, my install still didn't boot (even safe mode didn't work - boot freezed after loading the Mup.sys driver) so I had to boot (again) from the windows install CD, select setup and repair my windows install as per the following instructions: http://www.theeldergeek.com/replace_motherboard.htm
9. Reboot (again) your new VM, install Parallels tools
10. Now if you want to get rid of the Windows selection screen at boot time, you will need to edit your boot.ini file to remove the entry that links to your boot camp partition. Instructions on how to do this are here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022/EN-US/. In my case, all I had to do was to delete the last line.
11. Now you probably open the Add/Remove programs control panel and remove the Mac drivers needed for Boot Camp.

After going through all of this, you will have to reinstall all the windows updates you installed in Boot Camp (the Repair process reverts to the original Windows version) but you should have all your data, applications and settings intact. In my case, everything worked. I use Windows in a corporate environment and after going through that process, I still had all my logons to various corporate domains, all the corporate apps worked...

Good luck!

Colddiver

[constant]

.
Well done.
.

[visualpeople]

Do you think this would work to clone a regular PC? I have a 5+ year old dell sitting under my desk that has a bunch of stuff on it, but I'd love to get rid of it...

Maybe I'll give this a try this weekend, anyone else alredy tried?

[mafoe]

REALLY cool! thank You very much, it would be great to get a tool from parallels which is able to convert pc's into parallels vm disk but your interoduction helps too! Thank You for sharing!

cheers mafoe

[constant]

.
Bit harsh talking about the nice Parallels staff like that. I doubt they could get around to everyone anyhow.
.

[frank]

>1. Boot on Windows and clone your drive (I used the evaluation version of Snapshop

You can directly copy the BootCamp partition from a UNIX command shell (first eject the disk if it is visible in the Finder):

cp /dev/disk0s3 C.hdd

The generated file mounts directly in Parallels and is visible under a (previously installed) Windows (sic!), but not bootable. So create a new disk in Parallels, mount both C.hdd and the new disk (e.g. as D: and E:), boot into Windows under Parallels, and make a full file-by-file copy from D: to E: using Windows tools such as XCOPY or ROBOCOPY.

You should then replace E:\WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll with the file with the same name ripped from the genuine Parallels installation.

>7. You are not out of the wood yet... If you try to boot the new VM, it won't work.

Instead of trying to make the HD image bootable, I created a bootable floppy disk (in a disk image file) and now just boot from that. The file A:\boot.ini must be modified to redirect the boot to the C drive:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"

I did not need to use the repair console or reinstall updates.

Once you succeed to boot (I had to try a couple of times, also be patient if it appears to hang, it started to work reliably after a two or three attempts), uninstall the Apple drivers, then install Parallel Tools.

[frank]

REALLY cool! thank You very much, it would be great to get a tool from parallels which is able to convert pc's into parallels vm disk but your interoduction helps too! Thank You for sharing!

cheers mafoe
The really cool tool would be to allow mounting /dev/disk0s3 directly as a disk image!

[cmckee]

So my question is what is the best way to get rid of the boot camp partition when you no longer need it. I'm ready to scrap it entirely now that I'm using Parallels. Thanks!

[colddiver]

So my question is what is the best way to get rid of the boot camp partition when you no longer need it. I'm ready to scrap it entirely now that I'm using Parallels. Thanks!

Just open the Boot Camp assistant and reclaim the space (follow the instructions). Very easy.

[old300]

I am cloning my drive in Windows, but when I am in windows, I can not access the macdrive. Any suggestions? I am a novice at this and new to Mac, but i love it. THANK YOU.

[colddiver]

I am cloning my drive in Windows, but when I am in windows, I can not access the macdrive. Any suggestions? I am a novice at this and new to Mac, but i love it. THANK YOU.

To access your Mac partition when you are booted into your Boot Camp Windows partition, you need a software called MacDrive (http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive6/)

[cube beetle]

i own a legal version of virtual pc profession, which incl. win xp with legal licence.

is there a way to use this for parallels vm?

cu

beet

[joem]

i own a legal version of virtual pc profession, which incl. win xp with legal licence.

is there a way to use this for parallels vm?


Sort of. I suspect you can get someone else's XP install disk, and use your serial number from your VPC bversion (as long as it isn't installed anywhere else) and MS will let you "authorize" it.

[cybertubby]

Colddiver, that was brilliant!

Two quick Q's:

My restored image is nicely usable when XP from another virtual hdd is booted, but of course the point is to boot from the restored hdd. I'm stumped when it comes to step 7.
When booting to the CD, the repair utility kicks me out, with an "unknown file" message, and C: cannot be read.
Q1: When doing the backup, snapshot reported one unreadable sector . Is that fatal?
Q2: Upon restore, snapshot lists the partition as ???. Is that because I'm using a dynamic virtual HDD? Should it be fixed-size instead?

I tried repairing boot.ini by hand, it did not help.

[colddiver]

Colddiver, that was brilliant!

Two quick Q's:

My restored image is nicely usable when XP from another virtual hdd is booted, but of course the point is to boot from the restored hdd. I'm stumped when it comes to step 7.
When booting to the CD, the repair utility kicks me out, with an "unknown file" message, and C: cannot be read.
Q1: When doing the backup, snapshot reported one unreadable sector . Is that fatal?
Q2: Upon restore, snapshot lists the partition as ???. Is that because I'm using a dynamic virtual HDD? Should it be fixed-size instead?

I tried repairing boot.ini by hand, it did not help.

Not sure what the problem is with respect to the step 7 error message you got. I used a Windows XP Pro SP2 install CD and had no problem.

With respect to Q1, I would say this could be the problem. Have you tried the easier method of copying the HD (post #6 in this thread)?

With respect to Q2, I don't recall seing the ??? but I may not have been paying too much attention at that stage. I did use a dynamic HDD image and it worked without any problems here. I did make sure that the size specified in when creating the virtual HDD was larger (or same size) as my Boot Camp partition.

Hope this helps...

Colddiver

[oranabana]

sorry to sound dumb. Is it not possbible to use the XP installation one can do using BootCamp? I have two partitions on this MacBook Pro. One has Windows, the other one Mac OS X.

Can Parallels use the existing Windows partition?!

[joem]

sorry to sound dumb. Is it not possbible to use the XP installation one can do using BootCamp? I have two partitions on this MacBook Pro. One has Windows, the other one Mac OS X.

Can Parallels use the existing Windows partition?!

No, it can't.

[abhissekk]

Hi,

I followed everystep, but i cannot get the new hdd to boot. I wrote the backup using the windows install on another .hdd file. when i associate this new .hdd file with another VM it doesnt boot.
Is there anything I am missing?

Thanks,
Abhishek

[cybertubby]

I was not copying from bootcamp, but from an external drive.
I'm using the parallels hdd clone of that drive successfully,
but still can't boot from it.
(A royal pain-- much re-install required. )

There was probably something wrong with the original drive physically-
the notebook it was in had taken a tumble :eek: .


Not sure what the problem is with respect to the step 7 error message you got. I used a Windows XP Pro SP2 install CD and had no problem.

With respect to Q1, I would say this could be the problem. Have you tried the easier method of copying the HD (post #6 in this thread)?

With respect to Q2, I don't recall seing the ??? but I may not have been paying too much attention at that stage. I did use a dynamic HDD image and it worked without any problems here. I did make sure that the size specified in when creating the virtual HDD was larger (or same size) as my Boot Camp partition.

Hope this helps...

Colddiver
I was not copying from bootcamp, but from an external drive.
I'm using the parallels hdd clone of that drive successfully,
but still can't boot from it.
(A royal pain-- much re-intall required.)

There was probably something wrong with the original drive physically-
the notebook it was in had taken a tumble.

[sparky]

I was not copying from bootcamp, but from an external drive.
I'm using the parallels hdd clone of that drive successfully,
but still can't boot from it.
(A royal pain-- much re-install required. )

There was probably something wrong with the original drive physically-
the notebook it was in had taken a tumble :eek: .

I'm trying to do the same thing. I have a working 2 GB drive which contains Win98SE. I'd like to clone this and convert it to something Parallels can use.

How did you clone your drive?

I have an exact clone of the entire drive's files in a folder, I have a DMG of the drive I made in Disk Utility, and I have access to plug the original hard drive into the Mac via USB.

After reading this thread, it sounds like installing Windows from scratch would be easier.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[cybertubby]

Following Colddiver's advice (see 1st msg in thread), I used "snapshot" which worked very well
(as far as I know). For you there may be easier ways.

[sparky]

Following Colddiver's advice (see 1st msg in thread), I used "snapshot" which worked very well
(as far as I know). For you there may be easier ways.


I found that a product called Acronis True Image was much easier to use than Snapshot. Snapshot would forget the MBR (master boot record), give a cryptic error message, and not give very clear directions to restore the MBR.

Since my hard drive was not from Boot Camp, I just needed an exact copy that was also bootable.

Here's what I used and it has a 15 day trial.

http://www.acronis.com/promo/ATI/true-image-010.html

Very easy and it worked perfectly.

[wrwebb79]

OK...There is no way I can do all that stuff! But I just need windows for a stats program, office, outlook calendar, VZbroadband dial-up, and a VPN. I am thinking it will be easier to uninstall Boot Camp and all my crap there, install Parallels, and reinstall all my stuff.

How can I totally clean out Boot Camp, the partition, and everything I have installed on it?

[sparky]

OK...There is no way I can do all that stuff! But I just need windows for a stats program, office, outlook calendar, VZbroadband dial-up, and a VPN. I am thinking it will be easier to uninstall Boot Camp and all my crap there, install Parallels, and reinstall all my stuff.

How can I totally clean out Boot Camp, the partition, and everything I have installed on it?


That's easy. Just use Apple's BootCamp utility/setup program to remove the partition... and BAM, gone- and the extra space added back to your Mac.

[wrwebb79]

No shit? It erases windows, os, etc. - everything that was on the other side of the parition?

[sparky]

No shit? It erases windows, os, etc. - everything that was on the other side of the parition?

Yeah, what did you think it would do?

Otherwise do nothing and the partition is safe.

[runrun]

I'd love to give this a try and use parallels for my Bootcamp partition, and reclaim the space. I have a parallels install now seperate from my bootcamp, but I usually use my Bootcamp version because I can't get parallels to properly see my wacom tablet.

[SKIN]

Do you think this would work to clone a regular PC? I have a 5+ year old dell sitting under my desk that has a bunch of stuff on it, but I'd love to get rid of it...

Maybe I'll give this a try this weekend, anyone else alredy tried?

Check out my post...

http://forum.parallels.com/thread7910.html

[joem]

No shit? It erases windows, os, etc. - everything that was on the other side of the parition?
Sort of. It removes the partition, returning the space to the OSX partition. The bits are still there, however, and forensic recovery is possible. If you really want the data deleted, you need to use a utility to overwrite the free space on the OSX partition after you remove the bootcamp partition.

[VTSkier]

Is there a way to migrate the VM into BootCamp?

[dimplemonkey]

I was wondering if Parallels would be able to migrate over the Boot Camp partition or be able to read the partition and boot off of it. With rumors of Apple charging Tiger user for Boot Camp, I'd like to move and clear this partition but still use it to some degree. tia.

[brensparallel]

Colddiver

I've followed all your advice and am stuck when I try to boot off the CD after opening my newly created drive with the restored snapshot on it. Here is the message I get when I try to open it.

Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem.
Could not read from the selected boot disk. Check boot pat and dish hardware......

I was booting from the Windows XP cd. I've been searching for a fix for the past two days. Do you have any ideas how I can resolve this problem? Thank you very much for your help.

Brenda

[mmulin]

anyone tried using the new transporter?

install it on the XP running under parallels
make sure network-wise XP and MacOSX see each other
run the tool from the MacOSX
use the image for a new VM
ditch the bootcamp partition

???..highly theoretical

[mmulin]

anyone tried using the new transporter?

install it on the XP running under parallels
make sure network-wise XP and MacOSX see each other
run the tool from the MacOSX
use the image for a new VM
ditch the bootcamp partition

???..highly theoretical


thanks to insomnia am here to report that it works sweet

[ard]

You can directly copy the BootCamp partition from a UNIX command shell (first eject the disk if it is visible in the Finder):

cp /dev/disk0s3 C.hdd

The generated file mounts directly in Parallels and is visible under a (previously installed) Windows (sic!), but not bootable. So create a new disk in Parallels, mount both C.hdd and the new disk (e.g. as D: and E:), boot into Windows under Parallels, and make a full file-by-file copy from D: to E: using Windows tools such as XCOPY or ROBOCOPY.


I guess there must be additional arguments to the cp command. When issuing this command in the Terminal app, one gets

usage: cp [-R [-H | -L| -P]] [-f|-l|-n] [-pv] src target

[jonlikesbikes]

thanks to insomnia am here to report that it works sweet

This is also the way I did it (with Transporter). It worked really well! One step instead of 7+

[elfgeek]

1. Add a second virtual disk to your Boot Camp configuration in parallels (At least 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 (http://www.xxclone.com) in windows to clone your Boot Camp partition to your new disk.
4. User 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. Create a new Parallels configuration to boot off the new disk.

[mmulin]

or all much easier using transporter

[maxine2002]

1. Add a second virtual disk to your Boot Camp configuration in parallels (At least 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 (http://www.xxclone.com) in windows to clone your Boot Camp partition to your new disk.
4. User 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. Create a new Parallels configuration to boot off the new disk.

Thanks for these instructions. I couldn't get Transporter to work--maybe because I have a lot of files on my Boot Camp partition or ??? XXClone is simple to use and I now have a new VM using the cloned image.

[aydogdu11]

Transporter cannot be used for BootCamp partition according to its help file! Does anyone know whether there is another easier way to back up everything (preferably the partioned bootable BootCamp disk itself) in BootCamp partition? I have an external hard drive which came as formatted so that I could use it both with Windows and MAC. Any help would be appreciated, as I am a newbe convert from Windows to Mac.
Thanks.

[fbx]

My memory of a previous attempt is that although the help file SAYS Transporter can't be used for a Bootcamp partition, it can and, in my case, worked.

YMMV

[aydogdu11]

could you please tell us how you use the Transporter step by step? Thanks in advance.