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Virtual to Physical (Boot Camp) Guide

Dec 10, 2006, 06:16 PM
#1  

MacDadaVM
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Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 14
Converting Paralells image to BootCamp - Guide
Moved from "Parallels Desktop for Mac"

V to P BootCamp Guide. How to Migrate a Parallels VM to a Boot Camp Partition.

Since the release of the new Parallels Beta build 3036, I have been anxious to move towards using Parallels with a Boot Camp Windows install. My work requires I use Windows on my MacBook every day, and Parallels has been a fine solution up to now. Occasionally, there are times, booting natively would assist with some of the more processor intensive tasks, such as editing large Photoshop images. Because my parallels VM had been finely customized over the last few months, I needed a way to migrate my Parallels VM onto a Boot Camp partition. Little did I realize how difficult a task this could be. After trying unsuccessfully for 4 days, I finally hit on a method that allowed me to do what I needed. Below is a guide to assist those of you who might need to do the same. Here are some notes to keep in mind about my setup. If your environment is different at all, your mileage may vary.

* Machine: White MacBook Core Duo 2 Ghz with 2 GB RAM
* VM: Windows XP Professional (volume license) on a 30 GB virtual HD. 12 GB of data used.

Tools needed:

* WindowsXP SP2 installation CD (Volume License)
* DriveImage XML (http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm)
* Bart PE Boot Disk (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/) built from the XP SP2 disk
AND including the DriveImage XML Plugin (http://www.runtime.org/peb.htm)
* External USB2 HD formatted NTFS that is large enough to contain your disk image.
* Intel Mac (1st Gen MacBook used here)
* 2nd networked Windows computer with a share to dump your image to.
* Parallels VM containing an install of Windows XP SP2
* Home network running DHCP.

The steps:

1. Make a copy or clone of your original Parallels VM. Work from this copy.

2. Build and burn a Bart PE Boot disk on a PC using your Windows XP SP2 Installation disk and adding the DriveImage XML plugin and whatever network driver is required for your Intel Mac. (I copied the following directory from a previous clean Boot Camp install “c:\Program Files\Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP\yk51x86” to the PE Builder network driver directory “C:\pebuilder\drivers\net” BEFORE creating the Bart PE Disk. You may find a better way to get the driver out for your use.)

3. Attach your external USB2 NTFS formatted HD to the 2nd networked PC, and create a share on it to dump your image to. Remember to give the EVERYONE group full write access to the share. For this example, I will call this share \\PC2\IMAGE.

4. Boot up the copy of your Parallels VM.

5. Uninstall Parallels Tools from the VM.

6. Turn off the VM, and insert the BartPE boot disk. Make sure to choose it as the boot source for your VM.

7. Boot your VM off of the BartPE disk. When prompted, start network services. If the driver was installed correctly, they will load. Accept the default DHCP configuration to get an IP address.

8. Use the BartPE GO Menu to map a network drive (GO>SYSTEM>NETWORK>MAP NETWORK DRIVE). Remember to use the Connect as a Different User Name option to pass on the credentials for an authorized account on the PC2 computer. The username will be entered in the following format: PC2\username.

9. Once the drive is mapped, start DiveImage XML (GO>PROGRAMS>DRIVE IMAGE XML). Create an image of your VM’s C: drive and save it to the \\PC2\IMAGE share.

10. Shut down your VM after the image completes.

11. Remove the USB2 hard drive containing the new image from your VM from the 2nd PC.

12. Use Apple’s Boot Camp Assistant to create a Windows partition. Do not forget to burn a drivers CD.

13. Attach the USB2 Hard Drive to your Intel Mac.

14. Insert the BartPE Boot Disk into the Mac and begin the windows install using the Boot Camp Assistant. IMPORTANT: Hold down the Option Key as your Mac is rebooting. If you do not, the Bart CD may spit out.

15. Select the Bart PE CD as the boot source and continue to boot off the disk.

16. Once Bart PE loads you do NOT need to start the network services. Your image is already on the attached external hard drive.

17. Use DriveImage XML to restore the VM image to your Boot Camp c: drive. DO NOT RETORE ANY WHERE ELSE.

18. When DriveImage XML finishes, turn off your Mac.

19. Reboot, holding down the Option key. When you are at the Boot Camp boot source window, eject the Bart PE Disk, insert your Windows XP SP2 disk.

20. You will now need to use the Windows Recovery console to fix your XP installation. I found this information on the following web page: http://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=313 . (Thank you Thrax!!) If you try to boot directly into Windows, the boot will fail because the NTOSKRNL.EXE file is missing or corrupted.

21. When the Windows Installer gets to the Welcome to Setup screen, press R to repair your XP install.

22. Your previous install should be found. You will choose it by pressing the appropriate number (usually 1) and ENTER.

23. Enter the Local Administrator password the VM you just restored then press ENTER.

ENTER THE FOLLOWING COMANDS SEPERATELY, EXACTLY AS THEY ARE BELOW ON THE C:> PROMPT, AND PRESSING ENTER AFTER EACH.

24. CD ..

25. ATTRIB –H C:\boot.ini

26. ATTRIB –S C:\boot.ini

27. ATTRIB –R C:\boot.ini

28. del boot.ini

29. BOOTCFG /Rebuild

30. Select your Windows install (1) and press ENTER

31. Press Y and ENTER to add it to your boot list.

32. Enter Microsoft Windows XP Professional as the Load Identifier and press ENTER.

33. add the following OS load options:
/fastdetect /noexecute=optin
then press ENTER.

34. Run a checkdisk on the drive by entering the following:
CHKDSK /R

35. Run this final command to ensure the boot record is repaired:
FIXBOOT

36. type EXIT and press ENTER.

37. Once again, press the Option key while the Mac boots. Make sure the XP Install Disk Stays in and it is selected as the boot option.

THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS ARE FROM http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

38. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, press ENTER to start the Windows Setup.

39. To setup Windows XP now and Repair Install , press ENTER. do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the Recovery Console, press R", (you Do Not want to load Recovery Console again).

40. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing Windows installations.

41. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and press R to start the repair. (If Repair is not one of the options, END setup. (You have other problems and may just need to do a new install for Boot Camp.)

42. Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot. Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears. You may be asked to insert the disk if your Mac spits it out.

43. Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your applications and settings will remain intact. You will need to reenter your XP Install Key after the reboot.

44. After the installation finishes and your Mac reboots you should be able to log into the windows install that was previously on your Parallels VM.

45. Use the Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP CD to install the Apple drivers for your Intel Mac.

46. Reapply updates or service packs applied since initial Windows XP installation using Windows Update.

47. You should now have a fully functioning Boot Camp install migrated from your old Parallels VM.

48. If you wish to use this install as a Parallels VM with the new 3036 beta build, you need to boot into your Windows XP natively through Boot Camp and install Parallels Tools for Boot Camp package in it before your first boot in Parallels Desktop for Mac.

Good luck. I hope I save someone all the time I spent trying to get this working. Feel free to share this information and correct any mistakes you see. I put this together in a mad rush because I was so excited to get it working. :)
Dec 12, 2006, 02:49 PM
#2  

sirris101
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 24
Wow- thanks for the instructions. This should be a sticky!
Dec 14, 2006, 01:06 AM
#3  

ppayne
Member


Join: Apr 2006
Posts: 33
Hahaha
You have made my day. This requires 48 steps! That's priceless, just like Windows!

In my own case, I think I'll be choosing the Windows installer, it's not nearly as bad ^_^
Dec 14, 2006, 11:04 AM
#4  

MacDadaVM
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by ppayne
You have made my day. This requires 48 steps! That's priceless, just like Windows!

In my own case, I think I'll be choosing the Windows installer, it's not nearly as bad ^_^
Probably a good idea. It will save you the hair I lost trying to figure out hot to repair my XP install. If you can do it, a clean install is best.

I'm sure there's probably a simpler way to go about what I needed, but I didn't want to edit the boot.ini manually and I wanted to make sure the HAL was correct.

My procedure is a bit overly cautious and detailed. I think I got carpal tunnel writing the instructions.
Dec 22, 2006, 09:59 PM
#5  

stakats
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 1
Stuck on step 42
When I reboot at step 42, my machine starts up from the CD. Ejecting the CD first doesn't resolve the problem. Instead it looks like the Windows partition is not recognized as a bootable volume. All the previous steps went okay, with the exception of running FIXBOOT, which returned an operating system not found error. I had to specify FIXBOOT C: to get the command to work. Any ideas on what might be going wrong here? Thanks for the great guide.
Dec 22, 2006, 10:41 PM
#6  

MacDadaVM
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by stakats
When I reboot at step 42, my machine starts up from the CD. Ejecting the CD first doesn't resolve the problem. Instead it looks like the Windows partition is not recognized as a bootable volume. All the previous steps went okay, with the exception of running FIXBOOT, which returned an operating system not found error. I had to specify FIXBOOT C: to get the command to work. Any ideas on what might be going wrong here? Thanks for the great guide.
One suggestion. Force a reboot back into OS X. Once you are there, put the XP Disk in, then use the BootCamp assistant to start the Windows install again. See if you can begin the repair install once again. I know I experienced some quirks with booting while I was working on getting this. When I had problems, I would go back to the BootCamp assistant to start the XP install process. Also, do not use any Windows utilities (XP Install Disk, or from the Bart CD) to create or alter your partition scheme. Make sure it was created by BootCamp.

I wish you the best of luck. This is not the easiest thing to get working. Let me know if this helps or if you figure out what is wrong. If you can not get it to work and you still have an image you can restore, you may want to have the BootCamp assistant reclaim your drive, then start over again.

Please note that I have not tested any of this with the newet BETA build.
Dec 23, 2006, 11:02 AM
#7  

akac
Senior Member


Join: May 2006
Posts: 146
Now the real question - do you guys see any major improvements in speed by moving the Parallels VM to BootCamp?

See I have two VM disks - one C drive for Windows and apps and one F drive for Documents/Data.
Dec 23, 2006, 11:04 AM
#8  

Dr_Cure
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 2
Has anyone tried this shareware called MakeVM? It sounds like it might be a decent solution for transforming VMs between vmware and parallels. I'm out of town for the holidays, so haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but will follow up.

http://www.sysdevsoftware.com/soft/makevm.php
Dec 23, 2006, 12:33 PM
#9  

spblat
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 7
Please sticky this excellent thread
I second the call for this thread to be sticked. The excellent instructions above allowed me to migrate my day-to-day WinXP parallels VM into my boot camp partition. I had been unable to boot Boot Camp in Parallels with either beta, I was getting a bsod during boot. But now I have one WinXP I can boot in Boot Camp and in Parallels and I am giddy.

Bravo Parallels! Bravo MacDadaVM!
Dec 24, 2006, 07:17 PM
#10  

MacDadaVM
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by spblat
I second the call for this thread to be sticked. The excellent instructions above allowed me to migrate my day-to-day WinXP parallels VM into my boot camp partition. I had been unable to boot Boot Camp in Parallels with either beta, I was getting a bsod during boot. But now I have one WinXP I can boot in Boot Camp and in Parallels and I am giddy.

Bravo Parallels! Bravo MacDadaVM!
Thanks much spblat. I am very glad to hear you were able to get your install working.

So how did you get around the booting issue you were having?
Dec 24, 2006, 07:30 PM
#11  

MacDadaVM
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by akac
Now the real question - do you guys see any major improvements in speed by moving the Parallels VM to BootCamp?

See I have two VM disks - one C drive for Windows and apps and one F drive for Documents/Data.
I do have a speed improvement when booting directly via BootCamp (non VM), especially when I have to do some serious Photoshop work. Graphics performance is better, and you get the use of the iSight.

Using my install via Parallels seems at least as fast as using a virtual HD install, if not faster, but that perception may be because of the newer Parallels build and I have not tested it against my previous Parallels only VM. Boot time is slower, but I can live with that.

My reason for doing this is more for convenience and flexibility. There are certain features (suspend, for instance) that you will have to forgo if you go with this type of setup. If you have no desire to boot natively via BootCamp, there is no real reason to do this.
Dec 26, 2006, 09:19 PM
#12  

akac
Senior Member


Join: May 2006
Posts: 146
For me, I don't think I'd ever use Bootcamp. I simply want to improve the speed of the disk access under Parallels. To me having it use a partition directly should should improve speed simply because its not having OS X deal with the file (and caching) and then Parallels deal with the VM file. But I'm not sure that's true. I don't want to go through the work unless its a noticeable improvement.
Jan 26, 2007, 05:31 PM
#13  

jeremymallen
Junior Member


Join: Jan 2007
Posts: 1
Does this mean you can access the same windows installation in parallels and Bootcamp
This might be a novice question, but I started reading the thread in hopes to figure out if one could port over a parallels VM install to bootcamp. Do I understand the thread correctly that there is a way to install Windows XP on it's in partition that can be accessed in Bootcamp as well as through Parallels VM inside of Mac? If so, how incredible is that?! High-performance on the bootcamp side when you need it but the ability to multi-task day-to-day using Parallels inside of Mac. Thanks for letting me know if I am understanding this correctly.
Feb 13, 2007, 12:23 AM
#14  

DarkM0o0gg
Junior Member


Join: Feb 2007
Posts: 3
Sweet!!! Thanks for compilling this Convert Image to Boot Camp FAQ!
Awesome Job dude!
Many Kudos go your way for documenting the numerous steps. I was hoping for a Transporter update before I myself took on the task (but probably wouldn't have doc'd it :p ) Thanks for confirming it can be done with some work. I hope the most excellent parallels development team sees this and decides to assist novices like the one quoted below by incorporating this into the Transporter tool. {unnecessary jab} I mean after all, VMWare Converter can do it... :D {/unnecessary jab}

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremymallen
This might be a novice question, but I started reading the thread in hopes to figure out if one could port over a parallels VM install to bootcamp. Do I understand the thread correctly that there is a way to install Windows XP on it's in partition that can be accessed in Bootcamp as well as through Parallels VM inside of Mac? If so, how incredible is that?! High-performance on the bootcamp side when you need it but the ability to multi-task day-to-day using Parallels inside of Mac. Thanks for letting me know if I am understanding this correctly.
If you follow the above instructions closely you'll be fine. Embrace your inner-geek :cool:
Mar 2, 2007, 12:58 PM
#15  

schvenk
Junior Member


Join: Dec 2006
Posts: 18
If I own a cross-platform backup utility like Retrospect, is there any reason why I couldn't migrate a virtual machine to a Boot Camp partition via a backup/restore of the whole disk?
Mar 2, 2007, 02:36 PM
#16  

bnz
Member


Join: Jul 2006
Posts: 30
yeaah...i also vote for a transporter update ;-) i wouldn't even mind paying for a transporter professional version ;-)
Mar 2, 2007, 07:22 PM
#17  

monjark
Junior Member


Join: Mar 2007
Posts: 2
Same problems with 42
Quote:
Originally Posted by stakats
When I reboot at step 42, my machine starts up from the CD. Ejecting the CD first doesn't resolve the problem. Instead it looks like the Windows partition is not recognized as a bootable volume. All the previous steps went okay, with the exception of running FIXBOOT, which returned an operating system not found error. I had to specify FIXBOOT C: to get the command to work. Any ideas on what might be going wrong here? Thanks for the great guide.
I am stuck in the same place and I have tried to do all rebooting through boot camp in os x, but it still doesn't recognize the windows partition as bootable.
Mar 2, 2007, 08:02 PM
#18  

fbx
Member


Join: Jun 2006
Posts: 105
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremymallen
This might be a novice question, but I started reading the thread in hopes to figure out if one could port over a parallels VM install to bootcamp. Do I understand the thread correctly that there is a way to install Windows XP on it's in partition that can be accessed in Bootcamp as well as through Parallels VM inside of Mac? If so, how incredible is that?! High-performance on the bootcamp side when you need it but the ability to multi-task day-to-day using Parallels inside of Mac. Thanks for letting me know if I am understanding this correctly.
I believe (and could be wrong) that's not what's being discussed here. However, the good news is that this can certainly be done by setting up a BootCamp installation (separate partition, etc) and then setting up a Parallels VM that uses the BootCamp install within OSX.

See this thread http://forum.parallels.com/thread9451.html
May 12, 2008, 02:13 AM
#19  

theshadow27
Junior Member


Join: May 2008
Posts: 1
Update
MacDadaVM - Thank you for you detailed guide, I had to go through this pain-in-the-butt when the Parallels video driver couldn't keep up with Autodesk Inventor. I used pretty much everything that you set out, but for folks looking to do a little bit less rebooting, go a little faster, and only use one computer:

Step 2: Instead of burning the BartPE disk with DriveImage on it, have it make an .iso and save it to your external hard drive (Not necessary NTFS, I used my TimeMachine disk)

Step 3: Instead of sharing from another computer on the network, switch Parallels over to Host-Only networking. Go into Apple's System Preferences > Sharing (under Internet & Network) and enable "File Sharing". Make a new folder on your external drive, and add it as a Shared Folder in the list. Click "Options", then enable "Share files and folders using SMB". Click the checkbox next to your account, it will ask you for a password. Your username and this password are used in step 8.

Step 6: Instead of inserting a physical disk, mount the ISO from step 2.

Step 8: Map the network drive to your Mac's IP Address (Check IP under System Preferences > Network > Parallels Host-Guest. Mine was 10.37.129.2) + the shared folder name. For example, I used \\10.37.129.2\Images

Steps 11 - 16: Shut down the original VM, but disregard all of the moving drives and restarting bits. Make a BootCamp partition, but do not restart. Instead, make a new Parallels VM using the boot camp partition partition as it's hard drive. Of course it won't boot up at this point, there is nothing there, but run it anyway. Mount the BartPE image from step 2 to this VM's CD drive and restart. BartPE will boot.

Step 17: Restore in the same way it was created, map the same network drive and let it rip


The rest is pretty much the same, but you can get all the way to step 44 without rebooting your Mac or using anther computer (or technically an external hard drive, although it would be painfully slow). All the boot repair, windows updates, and driver installs (at least copying) can be done virtually.

Thanks for the inspiration and tips. I was bashing my head into my desk until I found your post. JSD
Oct 26, 2008, 05:22 PM
#20  

Uneekguy
Junior Member


Join: Oct 2008
Posts: 2
Holly Smokes..... I'd like to add a few steps becuase 42 just isn't enough.
Step 1 : Refill Ritiln Prescription
Step 2: Brew a pot of Coffee
I'm thinking I'd be better off backing up all data and then starting a fresh Boot Camp install.
Then creating a Virtual DISK for the sole purpose of storing DATA.
Share the disk to all platforms
This way, Time machine will make copies of all data without needing to backup 128GB each time.

The typical VM install I had used when I first purchase Paralells filled up my Time machine external TB faster than a firehose.

Does anyone know of a "Best Practices" to Serve XP DATA to 2 XP VM's on a network?


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