can't get migrated VPC image to boot

Discussion in 'Parallels Transporter' started by Margaret Martin, Apr 30, 2007.

  1. Margaret Martin

    Margaret Martin Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    Problem: endless boot cycle (black screen, flash of WinXP, BSOD so quick I can't read it, back to black screen with restart options)

    What I'm trying to do: for my new MacBookPro, I need the equivalent of VirtualPC. I use VirtualPC to debug websites.

    What I tried:
    Installed a trial copy of Parallels (build 3188)
    Copied the VirtualPC virtual machine (Windows XP, SP1) from my old G5 to the MacBookPro
    Used Parallels Transporter to migrate to Parallels (made it bootable)
    Everything seemed to go OK (no error messages)

    But I can't get Windows to launch completely.

    I've searched through these forums and I haven't found any solutions that I can try. The CDs for VirtualPC don't work with Parallels (that is, I tried to create a new virtual machine & install Windows, but Parallels won't recognize the CDs as containing a copy of Windows XP). I try to start in "safe" mode, but I still get the BSOD.

    All the literature says it's possible to migrate a VirtualPC machine, which would be great, as I don't want to buy another Windows license (especially if Parallels is not ready for primetime). But the details are skimpy and there's no troubleshooting info.

    Details of my system:
    MacBook Pro, 2.33GHz, 2GB RAM, OSX 10.4.9, 74GB of free hard disk space. I've done all the obvious maintenance things (repairing permissions, repairing the disk via Disk Utility, rebooting).

    Please help! Parallels sounds like such a cool idea and I really don't want to be forced to buy a cheap Windows box.

    Margaret
     
  2. mmischke

    mmischke Hunter

    Messages:
    155
    Perhaps a dumb question on my part, but does Transporter support pre-sp2 XP? Microsoft doesn't seem to anymore and they're really two very different OSs. I'd try patching to sp2 and running Transporter again.

    Also - be sure to uninstall the VPC Additions before you run Transporter. There's another guy here who's reported that they can't be removed from a Mac VPC image after the fact.

    ...and I assume you meant 'Web site', rather than 'website'. Ah well, I suppose that's a battle I'll never win, and also off-topic, so I'll shut up... :)
     
  3. dan@computerconcepts.ca

    dan@computerconcepts.ca Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    We have successfully transported a highly-customized pre-sp2 version of XP from an HP desktop - our problems began when we upgraded the source computer to sp2 and re-migrated - BSOD, and SOL too. We're hoping to find some hints here to solve the problem and move on but thought I'd let you know at least one person has seen it work.
     

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