newbie question(s)

how do i load guest os ?? creat iso ??

Really, I'm not a dunce, but I'm stuck getting started with Parallels. So far I've downloaded, registered, and activated the beta Parallels and have opened and configured the workstation. I understand that I cannot [yet] use the Windows XP already loaded with Boot Camp. I'm unclear what to do next. Do I simply try to load XP on my Macbook? Do I somehow load it into Parallels? I would prefer not to have to insert the XP disc each time I use Parallels--not even sure I can do this--so I want to use the iso image (?? but how ??). I've read through the user guides and still am unclear. For example, upon loading XP via Boot Camp I had to include the product key. I've heard of others having issues with loading it onto what will appear to the single user XP disc as a different computer.

I don't find the "quick user guide" helpful in this regard, and I don't want to simply fly by the seat of my pants and insert the XP disc willy nilly.

Thanks to all in advance for help/suggestions.

Paul

 

Paul,
Welcome to the world of Parallels - like you I found the manual lacking - but due to some understanding of a developers mindset I got it working even in Beta 1. Hopefully this should help out.
1) Create a disk image of WinXP using disk utility (/applications/utilities/); save this image to the desktop for ease of use.
2) Rename above image from *.dmg to *.iso - parallels recognizes the .iso as a mountable virtual CD.
3) Create your Virtual Machine in Paralells if you haven't already.
4) Start the virtual machine
5) You should at this point, see a black screen saying no boot device found - don't worry that's normal.
6) From the Devices menu, hover over CD/DVD-Rom 1, choose Connect Image
7) Find your WinXP image file (/Users/username/Desktop/*.iso), click 'Open'
8) Press 'Enter/Return'
9) You should get the setup screen
10) Let windows setup go thru all its SCSI/Raid Jazz
11) Follow on-screen directions/prompts
12) After windows setup has done its thing - you should be good to go.

HTH

 

Also, with regards to the issue of booting off the CD each time - no wouldn't work that way anyway. Basically what you/parallels are doing is creating a virtual hard drive (a document that has the .hdd extension) when Parallels runs, it interprets this *.hdd file as a FAT32/NTFS/UFS/etc partition.

As for activation - yes, this will appear to windows as a new machine - the hardware components are different >.< My only advice to you is Google is your friend - what you choose to do with that is up to you. I dislike how microsoft force us into breaking the EULA...unless you feel like shelling out extra $$ for a second license.

 

Thanks so much. I'm now at the point where I've been asked formatting a 7994 MB partition that's been selected. Do I select the FAT file <quick> or the other FAT file system?

Any hints on keywords for this search? Again, thanks for your help, Ben.

Paul

 

Paul,
Use FAT32 unless you have a need for NTFS, FAT32 will allow a lot moe flexibiliity.
Also, I would suggest using a size larger that 8G, unless you are really going to use a minimal system just for kicking around, I would consider somethig more like 20G if you are sreious about using WinXP.
You should also download the QuickStart Guide, its pretty good, as I recall, at getting you started with a new image.

HTH,
Peter

 

I would consider using FAT32 to be of LESS flexibility in certain aspects, due to its 4GB file size limitation. Also, I read that while .hdd can be converted to a writable disk image in OS X, once it's made to be so it's no longer a valid disk to be used by PW. So with that problem, the only viable way of accessing the disk image is through the guest OS that's using it... and even if you have the choice of NTFS (certainly the default in WinXP) it will not have any problems getting accessed through network sharing, where the file system is already taken care of by the host OS and even OS X can read/write a network-shared NTFS volume. Personally, I would recommend NTFS over FAT32 for NT-based OS (e.g. Win2k, WinXP, Win2k3).

Meanwhile, I found the minimum usable partition size for WinXP to be 3GB and Win2k SP4, 2GB. My PW Win2k VM is residing on a 2GB image file with about 800MB to spare thanks to NTFS disk compression (again, something FAT32 is not so flexible at). This is a figure obtained after installing Acrobat Reader and Java Runtime, together which takes up about 200MB of space, not considering compression. Consider how many apps you'll install from this sort of point on, and how much space they'll take up. For example, a nice IDE platform should need about half a GB TO 1GB. In this respect I find 8GB disk size that PW defaults to to be rather realistic for 'serious use'.

 

I'm curious, then, what Peterwor means by FAT32 being more flexible. But I'm now rethinking whether I need at this point to increase my windows partition if I'm not going to be 1) gaming, or 2) working with large video/multimedia files.

 

Maybe he's remembering Apple's comments about bootcamp. OSX will read / write FAT32 but not NTFS. With Parallels, FAT32 doesn't help since it's encapsulated in the .hdd file and both Windows and OSX can run at the same time and network.

I'm using expanding disks set to 15 gig, and the actual space used on the physical HD is about 5 for what I have installed. They will get bigger once everything is working properly.