installing XP from VPC disks?

J

joestrout

Bit poster
I bought VirtualPC about 6 months ago -- the version that includes a copy of Windows XP. So I own Windows XP, license keys and all, but I can't figure out how to install it on Parallels (and now that I have an Intel Mac, Virtual PC doesn't do me any good -- or so I understand).

The second installation disk has a big Zip file called "Windows XP Professional.vhd.002.zip". But Parallels won't mount this as a disk image. After unzipping it to my hard drive, Parallels still won't mount it (even after stripping the ".002" so I have a ".vhd" extension). I'm guessing this is a virtual disk image, which if I could mount it would happily install WinXP — but how do I get Parallels to mount it, or convert it into something Parallels could mount?

Thanks,
- Joe
 
I'm fairly certain you cannot do this from the disks. The version of XP that comes with VPC is "made for VPC" and will not work as a normal install disk.

You might want to call Microsoft and see if they will allow you to use that version of XP with Parallels.
 
Thanks Steve, that looks promising. But step 5 (of the David Jones 4 summary) appears to require Windows -- for integrating the "SP2" thing. Until I get this working, I don't have a Windows machine. Is it possible to do this step on a Mac, or to skip it and still get going? (As you can tell, I really don't know much about Windows — I just have to use it on occasion.)

Thanks,
- Joe
 
Oh, and same question about the last step -- Nero Burner is a Windows app. Can I just make an ISO image with something else, say Disk Utility? I'll give it a try, but any insight would be appreciated.

Steve, if you'd like to take this to e-mail, please feel free to write me (joe@strout.net).

Thanks,
- Joe
 
Yes you do need windows to do this job. I used VPC for this on a PowerBook G4 and I figured anyone with VPC disks would have VPC available to run. You need a PC of some sort - I found VPC to be a good platform because the resulting files were readily available to be transferred to OSX for burning in Toast if you want.

As for Nero Burner - you don't need that. Bart's step 8 (which is the typing of one command that runs his program) results in the required .iso file. There's no need to burn that anywhere, just move it to your intel mac and use it as a basis to load Windows onto Parallels. Note the modified command I used which prevented burning but obtained the .iso file.

I'm no expert on this stuff and had to piece the bits of the thread together to get the process to work. Sorry that the instructions refer to other instructions. But having stepped through it, it all worked pretty easily. All I can suggest is to study the file structure that you have to put together then plan and follow the steps and it should all make sense as you do it.
 
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SteveDemy said:
Yes you do need windows to do this job. I used VPC for this on a PowerBook G4 and I figured anyone with VPC disks would have VPC available to run.
Click to expand...

Alas, not so in my case, since VPC only runs on a PPC Mac — and I no longer have a PPC Mac, having replaced it with an Intel one.

But maybe I can borrow a Mac from someone and run it this way. (I don't know any Windows users well enough to ask to use their machine.)

SteveDemy said:
As for Nero Burner - you don't need that. Bart's step 8 (which is the typing of one command that runs his program) results in the required .iso file.
Click to expand...

OK, but to be clear, that command is a Windows command too, right? So those two steps (applying the service pack, and creating a bootable .iso file) need to be done on Windows.

Thanks,
— Joe
 
joestrout said:
So those two steps (applying the service pack, and creating a bootable .iso file) need to be done on Windows.
Click to expand...
Yes, those steps need to be done in Windows, either on a Wintel box, VPC, Parallels or Bootcamp - whatever you can find.

Also to be clear, you do need a bit of Nero, just not the big components of the real thing. As stated in my Apple forum post:

"The reason for the modification to the suggested process is that I don't have Nero and was adverse to loading hundreds of megabytes of various trial applications for a one shot job. This method requires only a .5MB Nero .dll file which is downloaded separately."
 
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