My Windows PC died last night. (Still not sure why, but I think something shorted out.) I could just build another PC, using the drives from the old one. But then I thought that it would be great if I could buy myself and iMac instead, and use Transporter to "import" my old Windows XP installation into a Parallels VM. Question: can this be done, given that all I have to work with as a source is the hard drive from the old Windows XP machine -- the computer itself is not working. I've seen similar questions posted here but none of them have been answered. I would appreciate a response.
Hello, Uesjd, To migrate your Windows XP, you need to install Parallels Transporter in Windows OS only on LIVE PC. You can attach your hard disk drive from dead PC to other temporary LIVE PC with Windows OS (as second one). In this case, in Advanced mode, choose your disk to migrate it (be sure that the integrity of your FS on it is kept) from Remote computer to Parallels data virtual disk on Mac. After that apply hardware changes on resulting data virtual disk to make it bootable (run Parallels Transporter again and choose 'From Virtual computer' as Migration Method). The resulting Parallels virtual machine with your Windows XP will be automatically run in Parallels Desktop for Mac. Best Regards, Helen.
So No way to migrate from 'dead PC'? Helen, So basically what you are saying is there is no way to migrate all of my systems, passwords, etc. from my expensive legally purchased Windows system, to Parallels (the reason I bought Parallels)? That has to be a mistake. I have a dmg of my original Windows drive, or can connect it to my new Mac, isn't there any way to push that to a virtual Windows in Parallel.
Yes, you can transport I previously posted a similar (unanswered) question, and after following the directions given here was able to migrate a Windows installation from a dead computer to a Parallels virtual machine, so it is possible. Now I just need to call Microsoft to activate, grr.
Bump I am now in the exact same situation -- physical hard drive, dead computer. But mine is a little different. The physical drive is dying, and has I/O errors. That's not a 100% certainty, but it's the simplest explanation that explains what's going on. As such, attempting to use the windows CD on the real machine gives me no "repair install" option, and a fresh install takes more than 20 minutes to try to check the drive, at which point it tells me that the drive has errors and cannot be repaired. The goal: Get the drive image up on parallels, repair the installation, and then be able to continue using the system while migrating to a better OS. At the moment, the best solution (and this is convoluted, I'd like to see if there's a better one) I can come up with is to install a fresh windows VM, attach the drive (1), run transporter from the VM to move the second data drive, create a second VM using that drive, and then change it to be bootable. (1): The problem: I can't actually do this with the physical drive, because of IO errors. And a straight "dd" to copy the drive to an image file means: 1. I/O errors will stop the DD, 2. How do I convert a physical image to a valid parallels image?
Hello, keybounce, it seems that there's no need to create the first VM - Transporter is able to convert the system directly into .hdd. But I'm not sure whether I/O errors would affect the operation. Best regards, Alicia.
That's good to know. I did not see that option. Where do I find the option to turn /dev/rdisk2 (or whatever) into a .hdd? Incidentally, "dd" on OsX has "noerror" and "sync", and it looks like a combination of those will bypass IO errors. So, that leaves the question: How do you go from a disk image (.dmg or /dev) to a parallels drive?
I got it to work. Repeat: I was able to take an image of a dead hard drive (obtained by dd with conv=noerror,sync and running overnight), turn it into a .hdd directory, and do a repair install of windows into that. Brief summary (I'm not at the machine in question right now): 1. Create a machine, normally, with a small (100 MB) full, uncompressed, plain hard drive. 2. Go into the .hdd directory. There's an XML file that describes the disk image -- change the blocksize (two places, I think) and the cylinder count. 3. Replace the existing image with your hard drive image. Do not try to change the name (that gave me a corrupt file error). With a (now verified) dead hard drive image, in my case, the first attempt to install a repair image failed -- several files would not copy. However, the resultant VM was able to run chkdsk on bootup. Lots and lots of errors got fixed. After that, a second repair install succeeded, and windows was able to re-install itself with only two more reboots needed. A dead system, brought back to life. Go VM's! (Total time of about 12 hours. This information should save you at least six .
Hello Parallels User ! I will comment each of your action and please reply to this with even more detailed and clear explanation I got it to work. Repeat: I was able to take an image of a dead hard drive (obtained by dd with conv=noerror,sync and running overnight), <--- PLease describe in more details above action, especially "obtained by dd with conv=noerror,sync and running overnight". turn it into a .hdd directory, and do a repair install of windows into that. <--- So after you have turned inti .hdd directory ( What does it mean ? Did you rename extension to .hdd or put this file to hdd directory ???). Also after you have done this did you start Virtual Machine and it worked or you started VM and it did not work ( then what error did you see ?) and you decided to use Repair function from Windows installation CD ? Brief summary (I'm not at the machine in question right now): 1. Create a machine, normally, with a small (100 MB) full, uncompressed, plain hard drive. <--- Why did you do this ? How did you do this ? 2. Go into the .hdd directory. There's an XML file that describes the disk image -- change the blocksize (two places, I think) and the cylinder count. <--- Why did you change the blocksize,the cylinder count? How did you change the blocksize,the cylinder count ? 3. Replace the existing image with your hard drive image. Do not try to change the name (that gave me a corrupt file error). Also please describe in details. With a (now verified) dead hard drive image, in my case, the first attempt to install a repair image failed -- several files would not copy. --->What did you do at this step ? However, the resultant VM was able to run chkdsk on bootup. Lots and lots of errors got fixed. <--- Did it start automatically ? After that, a second repair install succeeded, and windows was able to re-install itself with only two more reboots needed. <---- what means "a second repair install "? A dead system, brought back to life. Go VM's! Please describe did you have physical hard drive dying or system files were corrupted on your old system ? Finally where did you get such idea and instructions ? Please give configuration of your old PC... (Total time of about 12 hours. This information should save you at least six . Your information will be extremely helpful on further improvement of Transporter features. I will be glad to receive detailed letter from you on : ivanc@parallels.com Or just post your answer here !
