Upgrading to Vista from XP Within Parallels

[stormj]

I recently upgraded to the 1884 build and decided I would try my beta2 of Vista with it. (I'm apparently not on the RC list yet...)

I decided I would accomplish this by copying my hard drive image and linking it to a new VM set for Vista, and then upgrade. I failed at this.

First, when I boot XP in order to run the Vista upgrade, Parallels tells me I'm running the wrong OS. I don't know what effect this has.

Second, when I try to install Vista, it tells me that my machine is not compatible with Vista. I assume this is because despite my having set Parallels to Vista mode that the installed settings on XP were for a non-ACPI machine. Sure enough.

In order to change this, MS says you have to reinstall XP. I discovered that renaming hal.dll and copying halacpi.dll from the XP install CD can accomplish this. Upon making this change, however, I get a bluescreen error that causes Parallels to restart the VM before I can discover what the problem is.

In sum, I cannot upgrade XP to Vista, and I'm at a dead end. I'm sure I could just start fresh from a new install, but the thing is, I actually use Parallels; it is not an experimental-only platform for me. I've gone to lengths to get my XP partition where I want it, and I'd rather not start afresh.

Is there a solution for this that I've missed?

 

[stormj]

I've posted on this subject in other threads, and I haven't even gotten the beginnings of an answer.

I think this is a valid question. Some of us have been using VMs for a long time, and we would probably like very much--when the time comes--to just be able to natively upgrade to Vista, without building a whole new VM.

I have tried amending boot.ini to allow for a whole range of different HALs, but either they bluescreen, or just turn off the VM--when using the Vista (Experimental) VM. It seems to me that the HALACPI.DLL *should* work under the Vista VM, but it doesn't appear to.

Even if this isn't something that can be addressed right away, can someone either help me hack around this or give me an idea of a future build that might address this?

Thanks again!

P.S. I've tried the entire spectrum of VT-X and acceleration options, which seems to cure some other blue screens. I am now going to waste some time trying to reinstall XP on top of the old one and see if the new XP detects ACPI.... not that that will solve the problem, but it will isolate the issue of whether it is Parallels that is hiding the ACPI features when it detects XP or not.

 

[stormj]

For those interested, apparently re-installing XP under the Vista VM will install a ACPI HAL, which, in theory, should let you upgrade to Vista. I have not gone further than booting the fresh install to check for the ACPI HAL.