Create new Win7 VM on top of existing XP bootcamp partition?

[AWatson]

I've been running Parallels 8 for awhile on my Macbook with Win XP installed as a bootcamp partition. Occasionally I would actually boot into windows directly using bootcamp, but 99% of the time, I was running XP as a VM in Parallels under MacOS.

Now I need to install Windows 7, but I still need the keep the XP virtual machine. How should I do that? The hard drive is partitioned with an actual C: windows partition for XP. Will my Win7 VM just be on a virtual drive? It seems wasteful for me to leave this large (half empty) partition for XP and only use it occasionally. Can I make the current XP installation a VM so it takes up less space and put the new Windows 7 installation in its place on the bootcamp drive?

 

[AlekseyM]

Download https://www.parallels.com/products/transporter/. Boot into your windows xp machine (Boot camp). Get an external harddrive and install/run the transporter. After it "captures" the VM unto your external harddrive, go back to mac. You can now delete the XP partition and create a new Win 7 bootcamp partition instead. I do RECOMMEND you test the VM that got created by transporter to ensure it works and nothing broke before you delete anything.