help in using Switch to Mac

Have parallels 4.0 latest upgrade installed on Mac, working fine. Would like to replace or add to current virtual "Guest OS" that I am using now, with a complete reduplication of that which I have on my work Windows XP tablet. Bought the Switch to Mac upgrade and can't figure out what to do to convert. What I did:
1. Upgraded parallels to latest version on Mac, upgraded Tools, shut down my Guest OS (Windows XP)
2. Using CD provided, installed Transporter on Windows tablet.
3. When prompted, connected USB cable provided in kit from Windows to Mac -> "ready to connect" but never did.
4. Activated Transporter in Mac. Got "unknown error" - may be due to fact that cable provided by Parallels is USB and the Mac transporter app will only work, I think, w/ a network connection or a firewire cable ??? so,,,
can anyone give some step-by-step advice as to how to get my Windows XP tablet's entire contents transferred to my Parallels app on my MBPro? Would very much appreciate the help,

Mike Proper

 

Need similar help

I can't get the USB cable working that shipped with the "Switch to Mac" edition. I, too, need some more helpful guidance on how to proceed from here.

I installed the Transporter and Transporter Agent on both the WinXP machine, and the SnowLeopard machine. The WinXP machine cannot find a suitable driver for the Parallels USB Cable, and I cannot get the two machines to communicate. I also tried going over the network via a local router, and that failed, too.

 

John,

Got it to work with no help whatsoever from Parallels despite trying quite a bit. For what it's worth, here's what I did:

1. Download and install latest version of Parallels 4.0 and Transporter (for the Mac)
2. Reboot the Mac
3. Download Transporter AGENT on your Windows machine and install
4. Reboot the Windows
5. Both have to be on the same network. Both of my computers are wireless but I don't think it matters if wireless or not
6. Run Transporter on the Mac and use Network as your way to communicate. The other option I got was FireWire which wouldn't do for the Windows. At no time did I get an option for transfer via USB! So, that fancy expensive USB cable you bought in the "Switch to Mac" upgrade is useless (might use it to hang out wash to dry?)
7. The Mac should "see" the Windows box and then the transfer should go thru albeit slowly (took me about 12 hrs, using Windows XP and about 35 GB of hard drive)
8. One caveat: If your Windows box is using XP as an OEM installation (comes pre-installed on new computer and not store-bought), they may ask for a "Certificate of Authenticity" , which requires more numbers to enter. I had no idea what that was and spent 4 hrs w/ Microsoft Tech Support getting it resolved
9. Ultimately got it working and now, it's really sweet. HTH

Mike Proper

 

Thanks, I'll try that this weekend

Thanks for the help. I'll give it a try this weekend and report back. This has been the most useful info that I received, yet.

 

Transporter on Mac cant find Dell

Actually it said I needed to sing in as an Administrator on the Dell. Well, duh, only have one account on the Dell and it's an Admin. Not the same user name, though. Does this really matter?

 

Need to get a crossover cable

Since I relocated the computers in the house, and separated the computers from the local router (go built in WiFi), I now need to do a direct connect between the mac and the PC. So....I'll go out today and pickup an Ethernet crossover cable or crossover adapter so that I can do a direct connect between the two machines. I would think that would be the best possible transfer approach.

So....when I do run into the OEM WinXP key problem, what's the best approach to getting my hands on the correct key?

 

Does the kit give you the option of selecting which programs to transfer from the Windows machine to the MAC.

Or Does it copy the entire Windows hard drive. Yikes.

I don't want to bring everything from Win to MAC.

Thanks for your clear posting.

 

Got it to work

So, I finally got something to work, but nothing specifically in the documentation helped me get there.

On the WinXP machine, I ran Transporter Agent to migrate the WinXP machine to *.hdd and *.pvs file.

Then, I moved those files over to the iMac. The total size is around 50GB, so it took awhile.

I tried different ways of getting either the Parallels Desktop or Transporter to recognize these files. At my wits' end, I finally decided to click on the *.pvs file, and voila....Parallels recognized the action and started to import into a new virtual machine.

I found the Microsoft Product Key for my WinXP copy on the back of WinXP machine (it was an OEM installation on a Sony Vaio desktop). I entered the key, and I'm up and running inside Parallels Desktop. I still need to tweak some settings in the WinXP VM to have it more like the install I had on my WinXP machine.

I am getting closer to pitching my Sony Vaio desktop for good.