I installed a Parallels VM (Win 7) before Boot Camp. Now I want to take advantage of having Parallels and Boot Camp share the same partition. From what I've read, it appears I will have to delete the Parallels partition then create the Boot Camp partition and reinstall Windows, then re-create the VM partition. My question is, what's the best way to do this? Is it possible to make a ghost copy of Win 7 from my current Parallels partition and copy it onto a Boot Camp partition? Or do I have to do it the hard way: backup all the essential data files from Win 7, install a new Win 7 on Boot Camp, install all my apps, and restore the data files? TIA for any guidance.
ditto for me - does parallels even monitor this forum? i have boot camp configuring from parallels...but to re-install all my stuff from my vm of win 7 would be impossible (finding sw alone - nevermind the old sn's) - perhaps a way to back up the items in win and install it inside.
I do not believe this is possible, at least in part because Windows installs drivers for things like the CPU, sound card, video, etc. that will be different from what is required for the Parallels Virtual machine. Parallels installs it's drivers when it installs Parallels Tools, so going the other way is easier for Parallels to do. If you have a Windows install disk you can set up Windows using Boot Camp assistant, register it and ensure it works properly, and then import whatever files you want from the VM to the BC based Windows. Once that is done you can easily setup Parallels to use your new BC partition as it's source for Windows.