Migrating VMs from Parallels 3 to 5 - Hints

Discussion in 'Installation and Configuration of Parallels Desktop' started by tom27, Aug 25, 2010.

  1. tom27

    tom27 Member

    Messages:
    28
    Hi everyone,

    I´ve had a very tough time migrating my Parallels 3 VMs to version 5 and would like to share a few infos:


    1. Be aware that there is a manual installation mode! (Control+Command+Option+R)

    Parallels 5 is trying to upgrade an older VM automatically and unfortunately, the developers choose to NOT display what is happening inside the VM, but instead put nicely created graphics on top. As a result, you will NEVER see, what your VM does and it is stuck in an error message.

    All my VMs did NOT upgrade automatically, because (except for 1) all were stuck in the Windows activation screen, which was hidden by the Parallels info graphics on top. Only entering manual mode allowed me to solve this but clicking the OK or CANCEL buttons inside the VM.


    2. If you have apps like "Spybot Search & Destroy" installed on your Windows OS, you need (!) to enter manual mode.

    Spybot is great to prevent all software from modifiying the registry without your knowledge. But because Parallels does exactly this during the automatic process, the migration simply stops there until you accept or decline the modifications. Again, these messages are NOT displayed, because automatic mode hides them underneath the graphics.

    Entering manual mode will give you the opportunity to accept all required changes and the upgrade process then continues.


    As much as I like Parallels, I personally think that the redesign of the upgrade process does not do users a favour. In my case, I have lost countless hours trying to find out what happened - especially because you cannot say IF the process has stalled or is still working.

    It could have been so much easier, if Parallels did not put some fancy graphics on top, but instead would show what the VM does - or at least have a messsage inbetween which informs about the importance of the manual upgrade mode.

    Cheers
    Tom
     
  2. joevt

    joevt Forum Maven

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    1,229
    How did you find the manual installation mode? Is it documented somewhere?
     
  3. tom27

    tom27 Member

    Messages:
    28
    Infos on the manual installation mode can be found in Parallels knowledgebase. But you don´t need any more infos than just the key command (Control+Command+Option+R). As soon as you press these 4 keys, the display immediately switches to the VM - and you can proceed there.
     
  4. joevt

    joevt Forum Maven

    Messages:
    1,229

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