Moving Parallels XP VM image to Boot Camp

I have had XP installed as a VM on my Macbook Pro since the early days of Parallels. I would like to move that XP installation with all its apps and data to Boot Camp.

Can this be done?

The idea is that I can then boot up XP from Boot Camp or access it as a VM from OSX, which I understand is possible with Parallels 3.

All help much appreciated!

 

no news is bad news

I guess not...

 

It's possible, but it's not straightforward, you have to use a live cd cloning distro like g4u under parallels and clone the virtual hardisk to a file, on another Virtual HD, then make the boot camp partition, then create a virtual machine that uses the BC partition as HD and as a second drive the virtual HD with the cloned image, and boot the VM with g4u and do a restore.
After this you'll have to boot natively under bootcamp using the Windows XP cd and do a 'repair install' if just manually editing the boot.ini under recovery console doesn't make winxp boot, and finally you'll have to install BC drivers.

It's a tedious process, I have done it myself inversely (getting the HD from a broken computer and tranfer it to a VM, yes it is possible), it's not full-proof and you'll get problems in the way but I assure you it's doable, but with patience, it will probably not work the first time and you'll have to repeat it, so don't delete anything before you have it working.

I only recommend this process if you understand things like boot.ini, repair install, drive denominations under other OSes and cloning. If you don't, it will be a dead-end.

 

Many thanks for this, Specimen.

 

There is also this discussion message thread which may be of assistance:

Virtual to Physical (Boot Camp) Guide
Converting Paralells image to BootCamp
V to P BootCamp Guide.
How to Migrate a Parallels VM to a Boot Camp Partition.
http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=6433

 

Mmm.. Those steps seem to overcomplicate the procedure.

1) You don't need two computers.

2) There's no need to delete boot.ini or mess with it, 'Repair Install' will do everything for you.

Maybe I should post this in that thread but then I would have to recompilate those instructions and I'm lazy.

 

Hi,

I´ve tried it last weekend to convert a Nativ PC- Windows Install to Bootcamp via Parallels Transporter->Parallels VM then with Acronis in a Bootcamp Partition.
My Result is, that I have a Working Installation on a Bootcamp Partition, but it doesn´t work to boot thios natively. I don´t know why, but a repair installation from Windows does replace the whole windows. In this case I could do a fresh install first, but to convert an old corporate Installation to an working Mac Bootcamp in Native Mode doesn´t works

Two things I have done to do this with the results of my work: The boot.ini Partition Number corrected to Number 3, but every time I boot the Installation in Parallels, parallels wrote again numer 1 in the boot.ini and the nativ Boot fails again.

If the nativ boot works, I haven´t Keyboard and Mouse, so that I couldn´t log me in. to install Bootcamp-Drivers. Remote Control doesn´t work either

My Customer works now with his Mac Mini only in Parallels Mode from the Bootcamp Partition. Not lucky, but without a fresh install is this state the optimum for use

Regards
Habib

 

What I would do would be a 'Repair Install' with a slipstreamed XP with the same Service Pack or newer that the one it's installed, reboot, and then install Boot Camp.

 

ha thats my whole problem. i have 3 windows xp disks from various years that i can't find and where i put the serial numbers is laughable. i guess while i'm backing up for leopard i will go hunt them down

why does gates & co. (oh excuse me he doesn't work there any longer maybe they'll fail now) make everything so difficult?

then again i would love it if bootcamp ran linux but that is what i'll use my parallels for. i only need windows for one bloody game.

 

(can of worms opening alert)
... It is possible to run Linux on BootCamp...

Just google for: BootCamp "triple boot"

... It is also possible to retrieve a serial number from a windows installation using the adequate tools for it, I can't post those in here thou, again, google is your friend...

 

If you have any purchase information, you can call Microsoft and describe situation about license key