Install Parallel on Mac with Existing Vista Ultimate

I run Windows Vista Ultimate on my iMac through bootcamp. I want to install Parallel Desktop 5 on the Mac OSX Snow Leopard.

My problem is that Parallel wants to reinstall my Vista OS. Parallel will not detect bootcamp on my computer and therefore wants to reinstall Vista.

I do not want this, I have all my programs and files installed on Vista and I do not want a fresh install.

Thank you for your help.


Shawn
iMac OSX / Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit
Quad Core 2.66GHz Intel Core i5
4GB memory

 

Not exactly sure what you are expecting?

To run a vm requires an os to be loaded, thus an os has to be "installed" into a vm.

You seem to be expecting that somehow the vm is supposed to run from the os "installed" in Bootcamp, as though the vm should start up from Bootcamp, just like when you start up your computer using Bootcamp after power on. That is not how vm's work. I can't define that "somehow" in terms of what I think you are expecting.

I am not sure your source for creating the vm? CD? ISO image? Import from Bootcamp? If you are importing from Bootcamp, what is happening is the Bootcamp partition is being treated like a machine and basically a copy is being made into a vm.

If you are trying to make a Bootcamp virtual machine, you may want to review this long (72 entry) thread discussing the "performance" problems with such a configuration. http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=98762

What I did was create a vm from media (the same the I used to create the Bootcamp machine) and then add the Bootcamp "untitled" disk drive as a 2nd disk drive to the vm. This way all the files in Bootcamp are available as though they are on a 2nd disk drive. The benefit is, of course, that you can write to the Bootcamp disk, from within the vm running on your mac. (As you realize, this overcomes the limitation of using the Bootcamp disk from OSX if not formatted FAT, which is not practical for todays disk space requirements.)

Maybe you could rethink the configuration you are trying to create and maybe what you are expecting how the vm will be made. In any case, to create a vm does require an os be installed. The machine will be created in the mac disk space, so it will not "overwrite" your boot camp machine. It cannot use the Bootcamp installed os as it is used when booting the mac into Bootcamp.