I have a dead XP laptop - can I migrate the disk image?

[Eric Bobrow]

I am in the process of buying a MacBook Pro and will put Parallels on it as soon as it arrives. My Dell XPS laptop (running Windows XP Pro) died last week - it won't even bring up a logo onscreen! I had just restored the hard drive from an Acronis backup, so I believe the hard drive is still good, and I also have the Acronis backup disk image.

Is there any way that I can migrate the XP disk image into Parallels? I had planned to do this while the laptop was still functional, but at this point I can't boot it.

I looked briefly into the Parallels Transporter online manual, and it appeared that I had to install something in Windows before doing a migration. Of course, if I can't boot in Windows, I can't do that. Is there a way around this?

I have other Windows laptops (XP and Vista) in our training lab that I could borrow, and mount the disk from the dead XP box into an external hard drive, so I can get access to the disk, but I can't boot from it (as far as I know).

 

[Eric Bobrow]

Alternative idea / question

I have my Dell restore disks - can I run them in Parallels to restore an original Windows XP system?

As a variation, I may be able to find a full retail install for Windows XP that I own (I'm not sure where it's filed away). Clearly, I could use this to install XP into the Parallels virtual machine.

Once I have an XP system running in Parallels, then perhaps I can pull everything back from the hard drive into the Parallels virtual machine using my Acronis backup disk cloning tools. Is it possible to use Acronis True Image to restore a hard drive image into the C drive of the Parallels virtual machine?

 

[HonzaIl]

Hello,

I just moved one Windows notebook to Parallels VM (successfully with few hiccups only).

1. Unless someone has neat trick, you need to run Transporter software on the Windows, so if the Dell is dead, the standard way will not work. You could swap the disk in one of the Windows computers and try boot it, and then run transporter there. But it looks like drivers hell and lot of work... And it may not help you too much... note point 2 below also...

2. restore disks from Dell will not work in Parallels, they are hooked to something in Dell's bios. If you try, you should get message that this is not Dell machine. If there is a way how to go around it, I am not aware of it. Also, I suspect that moving the Dell Windows to non-Dell hardware will get you into "These Windows are not genuine" situation. Try calling Microsoft for help then - they sold these windows to Dell at something like $14 under condition that they will be used ONLY on Dell machine and so I suspect MS is not likely going to help you...

I think you may need to locate the retail version of Windows. And if it was used, you may need to persuade Microsoft, that you are moving it and this specific Windows are not used on other computer. That should work, but you may need to call them...