Parallels 5 / Boot Camp / Windows 7

S

sean lancaster

Bit poster
i am going through the hassle of reactivation of Windows 7. i have Boot Camp installed on one of my 4 internal HDs and it's using Windows 7 just fine. i set Parallels 5 up to use my Boot Camp install and it worked fine the first time -- no activation of Windows needed. when i returned to Parallels the next time, i had 2 Windows 7 (Windows 7 & My Boot Camp) listed in my Parallels menu. i wasn't sure which one to use as i am sure i just created 1 Windows 7 VM the very first time i started it up. so i picked one and it wanted me to activate. i quickly shut that one down and tried the other. it again wants me to activate. i suppose i have to call MS and explain, which is fine, but i'd rather figure out which VM i should be using and then delete the other one to avoid future confusion. Does anyone know whether i should be using the plain Windows 7 or the My Boot Camp VM?
 
Windows 7 and My Boot Camp VMs

Same problem here!

I've seen same question(s) posted elsewhere but have yet to see an adequate response posted. I created a Boot Camp partition and installed Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, then installed Parallels 5 Desktop and setup a VM using the existing Boot Camp partition. No problems with activating Windows 7. Don't run Parallels for a while, start it and there are two VMs: one called My Boot Camp and the other Windows 7. I know that the VM called Windows 7 is the one that was created when I'd first setup Parallels (because I remember leaving the default name Windows 7). I accidentally start up the VM called My Boot Camp and it starts going through the VM setup process. It ends up hanging and I shut the VM down, though not before it added a My Boot Camp Applications folder in my dock next to the Windows 7 Applications folder. Start the other VM called Windows 7 and I get the startup screen letting me know Windows was not properly shut down last time (when I'd accidentally started up the My Boot Camp VM). It ends up booting fine with no activation problems. I've since started the Windows 7 VM and have used it without issue, but it seems from reading other posts that if I were to start and let the My Boot Camp VM run through the setup process, I might face activation problems when switching between VMs.

So, the question, again, is which VM should we be using? And why are two VMs created when creating a VM in Parallels 5 using an existing Boot Camp partition? Can one be removed? If so, which one?
 
Same problem

Oh no. I have the same problem but can't find an answer. I setup the My Boot Camp VM all OK, but then clicked on the "Windows 7" VM and it tried to do the setup all over again, except this time it wanted the Windows install CD's I think. I stopped it, but now I'm not sure what I should do with this second VM. Delete it?
 
@SarinaM I think you can delete the "My Boot Camp" VM (or whichever one you didn't name the first time you setup a VM). That's what I did and could continue using the "Windows 7" VM that I created, but I didn't continue using Parallels long enough to see whether or not another VM called "My Boot Camp" was created automatically again. I ended up deleting Parallels and now boot directly into Windows when I need to use it (to run AutoCAD). Too much hassle, and AutoCAD performance in the VM wasn't as good as it needed to be. Be aware that when you boot directly into Windows after having these problems with the two (2) VMs and starting the set-up process for both, your activation will likely be null and you'll have to call that number to re-activate. That's what happened to me.

This multiple VM problem seems to be a common question/issue that Parallels has yet to address specifically. I'm really disappointed in Parallels.
 
Thanks Jagrre. I've set it up to run SolidWorks, so we'll see if it's powerful enough - otherwise we'll just use BootCamp.
 
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