New Mac, but old Parallels...

Hi, all:

I've been running WinXP under Parallels (v.4) on my 7-year-old MacBook, for about six years, with no problems whatsoever. I have done this for one reason only, so that I can use Quicken for Windows on my Mac.

Now I have a new MacBook Air (OS 10.8.4), and I'd like to be able to continue to run Windows XP (and Quicken) on the new MBA. I understand that I'm going to need to upgrade from Parallels v.4 to v.8, but what do I need to do, and in what order do I need to do them?

I read on another thread where someone said to "make a disk image from within Windows," but I don't know exactly what that means, or how to do it. Also, I'm not sure if I should upgrade to Parallels v.8 on the old MacBook, and THEN try to port everything over to the new MacBook Air, or if should try to port first and then upgrade.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,

Bill in CT

 

Hi Bill,
First of all congratulations on purchasing a new MacBook Air!
You won't need a Windows CD at all if you want to continue using your old virtual machine.
Let me guide you step by step:
0. Make a backup of your virtual machine: http://kb.parallels.com/en/8829
1. Purchase a full license of Parallels Desktop 8 at http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/ (unfortunately upgrade license won't work for you as Parallels Desktop 4 had been EOLed several years ago)
2. Download and install Parallels Desktop 8 on your new Mac
3. Shutdown Windows on your old Mac and plug in any external storage device (it should enough space to fit your old virtual machine)
4. Copy you VM from the old Mac to the external storage device. Your VM should be located in your Home folder/Documents/Parallels and should have .pvm extension
5. Plug in the external drive to your new Mac and copy/paste your VM to Documents/Parallels folder
5. Double-click on your VM (.pvm file you've just copied) and it will automatically register the VM and reinstall Parallels Tools.

Hope it helps!

 

Andrew:

I'm sorry... I can't find the .pvm file, on my old Mac. Spotlight says, "No files found," when I enter ".pvm" as the search query. Meanwhile, both the MacHD/Users/Username/Documents/Parallels and the MacHD/Users/Shared/Parallels folders show as being empty, when I use the Finder to try and look in those two locations.

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!

Bill in CT

 

Can anyone help? I can't find the .pvm file on my old Mac, so therefore I can't (yet) make a backup copy of it, as Andrew suggested for Step 0, above...

Bill in CT

 

Looks like you don't have any Virtual Machine on the Mac you are looking in?

 

Nope. I opened it yesterday, Thursday the 1st (WinXP & Parallels 4, running on Max OS 10.6.8), and ran the Windows update.

 

Open Parallels VM List, right click on the VM a select show in finder.

 

That did the trick!

Copying it to an external USB drive, now.

 

OK, so I've copied the .pvm file into the Documents/Parallels folder on my new Mac. I understand that I'm supposed to double-click on that file, but I have one question, before I do so:

Am I supposed to double-click on that file BEFORE I open Parallels 8 on my new Mac, or am I supposed to open Parallels 8 on my new Mac first, and THEN double-click on the .pvm file that I've just copied to Documents/Parallels?

I want to get this right!

Thanks,

Bill in CT

 

I'll be most grateful for any help...

Should I double-click on the now-copied .pvm file, WITHOUT having opened Parallels 8, or should I open Parallels 8 and then double-click on the now-copied .pvm file?

Thanks!

Bill

 

Anybody?

Thanks!

 

Andrew detailed step-by-step what you have to do, I don't see what's missing here.

He doesn't say to start Parallels first does he? He only says to install. In reality it makes 0 difference if you start it first or not.

 

Done. Working properly.

Thanks so much.

 

Thanks, Andrew!

 

Last question:

How do I get rid of the old copy of Parallels (Parallels v4) and its virtual machine, on the old MacBook? I'd like to reclaim the disk space.

Thanks!

 

We've learned that the VM is all contained inside the .pvm, so, deleting the .pvm deletes the VM.
To remove PDM4, uninstall PDM4 using the uninstaller found in the PDM4 .dmg (and before you say you don't have it anymore, you can download it from the links in my signature: "Previous versions downloads")

 

Will do

THANKS!