moving/migrating existing Windows 7 installation to Parallels

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by HAMIDM, Aug 15, 2010.

  1. HAMIDM

    HAMIDM Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    My Win7 machine died (motherboard is dead). I have no intension of fixing it. Instead I have removed the drive and attached it to my Mac via USB.

    I want to "revive" my Win7 installation on my Mac under Parallels.

    I found this: http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=3261&highlight=mup.sys
    But it is for Windows XP, I am doubtful it will work with Windows 7.

    I cannot use Transporter because the original machine is dead, I just have the hard drive.

    Any tips on how I can bring up the Win 7 install (from the hard drive of a dead machine) on Parallels?

    Thanks is advance!
    -Hamid
     
  2. joevt

    joevt Forum Maven

    Messages:
    1,229
    I don't see an option to create a virtual hard disk from a physical disk or to transport a Windows installation to the Mac from a physical disk.

    You have two choices:
    A) Clone the physical disk to a virtual hard disk. This has to be done from within a Parallels Desktop virtual machine because only Parallels Desktop knows how to write to a Parallels Desktop virtual hard disk .hdd file.

    B) Use Parallels Transporter. Run Parallels Transporter and in the help menu look for "Migrating from Boot Camp". It shows three methods. The first two are:
    a) Migrating Within the Boot Camp partition. This means you boot your Mac to the partition containing Windows. Some Macs can't boot Windows from USB drives, and the installation might not have all the necessary drivers to boot on the Mac.
    b) Migrating via the Boot Camp Virtual Machine. This means you create a virtual machine in Parallels which boots from the partition on the USB drive. Then you use Parallels Transporter Agent in the virtual machine to begin the migration. When the migration is done, you'll have another virtual machine that will boot from a virtual hard disk.

    I would go with (b).

    More info:
    http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=95828
     

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