Windows 7 Boot Camp on Parallels 5

I've been unable to get a VM of my existing Windows 7 install working on Snow Leopard with Parallels 5. Tech support has already told me that this is unsupported as of yet, but I wanted to see if anyone in the community has been able to successfully get this working. Seems like often, the community is faster to these sorts of things than the developers.

What happens to me is, when I attempt to create a new VM of my Win 7 install, it starts to run in Parallels, but hangs on Startup Repair. Yet, I can boot in perfectly from Boot Camp.

Is there anything I can do to get the VM working at the moment? I've already tried the registry patch method as per this thread (I felt funny about merging an XP registry patch into Win 7, but risked it). That did not resolve the problem.

I'm running Snow Leopard and Boot Camp 3.0 with Windows 7 Home Premium installed -- my machine is a late 2008 Macbook Pro with 4GB of memory.

 

Same Here

Yes, I tried the same configuration and it fails here too.

I'm surprised they enabled the feature if they knew it wouldn't work.

 

Yes, I'm having the same problem.

I installed Windows 7 in Boot Camp. Now, of course, since Parallels 5 won't WORK with Boot Camp, I'm stuck.

See, the Registration code was used up when I installed in Boot Camp, back when I thought Parallels/Boot Camp would work.

Now I can't use Windows and Parallels at all.

 

I wouldn't worry about "using" up the Windows 7 "key" that you used in Bootcamp. First of all, I've read elsewhere that Windows 7 does NOT hiccup if it's installed on a second computer. That said, I haven't tried it as I have 3 computers running Win7 with 3 different keys.

IF a Parallels installation refused to accept the key for a 2nd shot on the same computer, based on past experience, MS will probably give you another working key if you explain that you're only putting Win 7 on the same computer.

 

Yes, because M$ is known for their kind and gentle nature.

....

Is there a way to officially uninstall Windows 7 so I can reinstall it in Parallels?

 

Not sure what you mean by "M$", but they've always "rekeyed" me when I've had a problem in the past with too many installations with one key.

Some (most) of their early crappo Windows OS software had to be reinstalled several times due to the system bogging down with use. It always amazed me how quickly a fresh Windows installation would run (for a while).

I assume you have your Windows 7 running in Bootcamp. I think if you start up Bootcamp, it will give you the option to delete Windows 7.

 

So. Back to the original topic of the post. Nobody has had any success with Win 7 on Boot Camp?

 

The only reason I bought the parallels 5.0 software was because of its ability to boot from the bootcamp partition. I haven't installed it yet because I saw this thread, but it a HUGE disappointment that parallels promotes their software as able to boot from the bootcamp partition when it isn't at all! I hope they can find a solution to the problem QUICKLY!!!

 

Yes, the BootCamp optional boot works great on my new iMac. However, I'm not sure how to boot straight to an option menu. My system boots to whatever the last OS was. So, if I'm in Windows, I have to click on a button to reboot to OS X. Same if I'm in OS X.

On my MB, I'm using Parallels 5 with Win 7 and that works great too. While I have done a lot of cross system data retrieval, it appears very easy to pull up a OS X file while in Windows and while in OS X, very easy to do the same.

My BootCamp Windows installation was a clean one. My MB had P4 and Vista on it. I first installed P5 and then I installed a new VM which I put Win 7 on and after I saw that Win 7 was working fine, I deleted the VM that had Vista.

 

Make Boot Camp Windows7 work

Install MACDRIVE 8 on boot camp install of Windows7 and it cures the parallels issue. I guess Windows cannot read/write boot sector without it. Parallels should supply this capability for free. Does not appear to be an Apple issue as reported by Parallels support. You will need to re-activate office and Windows7. Office goes automatically and Windows7 need to use automated phone support answer 1 computer install. With Parallels tools installed in Windows7 really cool!!!

 

Thank You Eliot H!!!

It sounds like you figured it out. But is it possible for you to make a step by step guide. There is a couple of things in what you said that I can't understand - at least I can'y understand what I'm supposed to do.

Also if I install macdrive 8 before install parallels (and configuring it to use the bootcamp partition), will ALL the problems disappear? I mean will it run just as smooth as if you were actualy booting from bootcamp. I don't mean as fast as in bootcamp but as smooth => without any error messages and without it doing weird stuff everytime it boots, like installing the tools every time. I've seen that this is also a problem.

 

Make Boot Camp Windows7 work

Hi BoE,

I installed Boot Camp partition with Windows7. Then I booted MAC and installed Parallels 5. I failed several times at getting Boot Camp -> Windows7 virtual machine to work but did not uninstall anything. I booted Windows7 from Boot Camp partition and installed Macdrive8. Then I booted MAC partition and open failed Windows7 virtual machine which successfully completed install of Windows7 virtual machine. I then booted Windows7 virtual machine and installed Parallel Tools. I then activated Windows7 and Office 2007 on VM. I am using demo version of Macdrive8 but ordered permanent copy

Hope this helps. .

Good luck,

Eliot

 

Thank you Eliot.

So now it runs flawlessly?

If I install MACDRIVE 8 before i begin installing parallels, wouldn't that be even better you think?

 

Sadly, this doesn't work for me. Installing the newest trial version of Macdrive on the Windows side results in no difference in Parallels. I create a new VM (or use the old, broken one), and all that happens is it hangs in Startup Repair.

 

This thread delivered!

Thank you so much. Was looking into this issue a lot, and installing the Macdrive 8 trial helped create the VM properly. Lovely!

This was the feature I was waiting for to buy this software. Now getting the full licence since this is exactly what I wanted from Parallels.

 

I've read that parallels says it is apples problem because bootcamp don't support windows 7. Maybe that implies that it will work as intended when apple releases their update for bootcamp.

 

I'm wracking my brain to figure out what those of you who have had success getting a boot camped Win7 to work while using Macdrive have done that I haven't.

Are you all using the most recent version of Macdrive? Are you setting anything in its configuration? Using the trial version like I am?

Just to be clear, this is for making a boot camped install work in Parallels, right? Not creating a new install of Windows?

I must be missing something.

 

Same problem as well.

I have Windows 7 64-bit installed on my MacBook Pro (Oct. 2008).
It boots up fine in Dual Boot (and it has yet to even crash on me!). A plus considering it's Windows.
I also have MacDrive 8 installed in Windows 7.

Yet when I boot up into Snow Leopard and open Parallels 5 it starts to convert the VM
and then hangs on the Startup Repair Utility in Windows 7.
I have changed the settings in Parallels 5 to have the VM use 1 CPU and 1GB of memory (while allocating 3GB for Parallels to use).

I think the problem is that the Startup Repair utility even starts. If there could be some way to force the VM to boot Windows 7 normally and not with the Startup Repair it might help.

Still stuck just dual booting the two OS's for now until I can find a fix for Parallels.
Hope there is a solution soon.

 

Update

OK, so running along with my Startup Repair theory, I went online in search of how I could disable it.

I found this forum about this exact topic:
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/11336-disable-windows-startup-repair-default-option.html

It was fairly simple.
Boot into Windows 7. Then you have to 'Run' the Command Prompt 'Cmd' as Administrator. Then follow the last post entry.

I re-booted back into Snow Leopard, started up Parallels 5 and Eureka! it worked.
I now have Windows 7 booting when I open up Parallels. Parallels Tools installed and works fine as well.
(Of course you do have to re-activate Windows 7, Microsoft Office, and MacDrive, if installed)
I then turned back on the Startup Repair utility in case I do need it in the future.

Hope this helps others out there who were stuck with Parallels 5 initially creating the VM and having the Startup Repair hang on you.

 

bootcamp's applemnt.sys is the cause

he problem lies with bootcamp's support to read and write hfs partitions in windows. the latest version of bootcamp lets you read and write to your mac's partition - macdrive provides the same functionality, it actiually replaces bootcamps driver for the mac partition, which is why most people are finding success after installing macdrive, however uninstalling macdrive allows bootcamps driver to run and cause parallels to get stuck - the quick solution is to boot up with bootcamp, uninstall the Bootcamp Services from the uninstall a program option in control panels. - to be exact, it is applemnt.sys which is casing windows 7 to crash and boot into its repair mode