Setting up multiple guest OS (XP & WIN7)

L

LeslieI

Bit poster
I have several hard drives in my mac pro, and I can start Mac OSX Lion, Win XP Pro, or Windows 7 successfully using bootcamp (holding Option at boot).
I have a properly functioning boot camp (Windows XP) running under Parallels 7; so how do I get another virtual machine set up for the Win7 installation? Unless I'm missing something, there's no option that will allow this...

Thanks,

Les
 
DISCLAIMER: Do this at your won risk, I'm not 100% confident there are no problems with this procedure.

I would duplicate that windows xp .pvm file, give it a different name, then in Parallels, File>Open the duplicate (it will say something about duplicate MAC addresses, allow it to update). Go thru every setting in Configure and adapt it to the target bootcamp partition you have in mind, starting with changing the OS, then finally in Hardware>Hard Disk 1 change source to reflect the correct bootcamp partition (pick the correct hard drive by maker and model).

Try it.

I've personally done this in the past and worked in a little experiment I made, although I only used it once. The reason I'm not 100% sure is that, first, apparently PDM wasn't actively developed with the idea of supporting more than one Bootcamp partition at the same time, secondly, or, because of that, I think (not sure either) Parallels can enumerate the disks differently on occasions, and from what I remember in the configuration Parallels doesn't record the disks unique id but this enumeration that is made at the start of the app, this might be only problematic with external drives.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The suggested solution Works!

Thanks, Specimen
That worked, without major issues! Great tip!
All my windows guest OS's now show up and work!
Now to figure out proper allocation of resources, processors, ram, etc.

Les
 
Great!

I just remeberedt there was a simpler way to achieve this, the result is the same thou.

By selecting the VM you want to duplicate, File>Clone (it does the same as copying the .pvm).
 
Snow Leopard as Guest OS

I have Lion installed on MacBook Pro, and I use Parallels to run Windows XP.
I would like to create another Parallels guest OS; namely, Snow Leopard.
Can that be done with your method?

Thanks.
 
No.

If you want to create a new VM follow File>New. You can't make a Snow Leopard machine due to license restrictions, only Snow Leopard Server.
 
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