Hello. I recently had my old laptop die on me, so I'm considering getting a Mac. I do have one question though: Would it be possible to transfer my OS from my dead lappy into parallels and boot camp via an external drive enclosure onto my new Mac and have boot camp and parallels work from the same partition? Thanks guys, love the product.
Potentially complicated Newbie question
- Thread starter LavaHor
- Start date
LavaHor said:
Well, Parallels can run boot camp partitions, so if you got the old OS transfered to bootcamp, yes. There's software available that can help with this, but it isn't really a Parallels issue, and I don't recall specific names. Parallels also offers software to let you transfer an OS to a non-bootcamp partition, which would require you to boot into your old OS to run it.
James Bond 007
Hunter
LavaHor said:
No, I don't think so. The copy of Windows you have on your laptop (if it is preinstalled) is only licensed to use with that laptop. If your laptop dies, so does that copy of Windows. If you want to use Windows with Boot Camp and Parallels on your future Mac, you will need to buy a new copy of Windows.
However, if that copy of Windows is a retail copy, then you are under no such restrictions and you can reuse it with your Mac.
And, I strongly suggest you get Windows XP, and not Vista, if possible, to use with your new Mac.
James Bond 007 said:No, I don't think so. The copy of Windows you have on your laptop (if it is preinstalled) is only licensed to use with that laptop. If your laptop dies, so does that copy of Windows. If you want to use Windows with Boot Camp and Parallels on your future Mac, you will need to buy a new copy of Windows.
However, if that copy of Windows is a retail copy, then you are under no such restrictions and you can reuse it with your Mac.
And, I strongly suggest you get Windows XP, and not Vista, if possible, to use with your new Mac.
It is a retail copy of Vista Ultimate. I wasn't really worried about the legal legitimacies, as I was about the technical plausibility. Why recommend XP? Is there (another) problem with Vista?
Keep in mind that I must copy the partition via mounting the hd in an external enclosure, as the computer it goes to no longer works and the HD cannot be booted to via it's original hardware.
aguydude said:
I can't boot the HD because the surrounding computer is no more. If bootcamp can copy and boot the partition on my HD, which would then allow me to boot the same copied partition into parallels, that would probably be my best course of action. I do, however, need to know exactly how to do this before I make any buying decisions.
James Bond 007
Hunter
LavaHor said:
Good. Then you can use that copy on the Mac as long as you removed it from the original computer. But I am afraid you may need to reinstall Vista directly on the Mac. It may be possible to transfer the system from your PC, but I am not sure how to do that.
Some reasons to recommend XP over Vista at this time:
(1) Windows Vista takes much more resources to run well than XP, so you are most probably going to see a better performance with XP.
(2) Some hardware and software (especially older ones) may not work with Vista.
But since you already have a copy of Vista, you should of course use that instead of buying another copy of Windows XP.
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