installing parallels then boot camp

i just got my first mac and used boot camp to partition the drive and then realized that i couldnt use my xp ico file so i then successfully installed parallel using the .ico file. i then unpacked the .ico file and put all of the files onto a cd and tested that the cd would successfully cause the first xp install window to display on my existing windows machine, which it did. however when i ran boot camp and attempted to use that cd to do the windows install, i got a message from boot camp that the cd was not an install cd. is there a problem caused by the install of parallels first or did i do something wrong when i constructed the cd? I am a very experienced windows user but have no experience with vm or mac's.

i am stuck at this point and am thinking i need to go buy another copy of xp to make this work. any help would be appreciated.

 

Do you mean you burnt CD which is not bootable, just copying file without specifying boot sector
See correct steps to burn bootable CD http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html

 

duh!! of course the cd needed to be bootable, thanks for the great article. boot camp is installing now.

couple of other issues 1) when i am in parallel windows and try to print (i have parallel set to the mac hp 5p printer; the windows print queue empties but it never makes it over to the hp printer. is there some configuration i should be reviewing. Have a similar problem with the cd drive, when i insert a cd, mac knows its there but windows does not.

Finally, how can i set up maximum file sharing between the windows environments (paralllel vm and boot camp partition) and the mac as i am a heavy windows user and would like to maximize the 160g space to be more heavily windows and leverage parallel and boot camp to their greatest advantage but have very simple windows and mac configuration.

thanks

 

1. Printing
Set up printing as described in Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/file/doc/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac_User_Guide.pdf on page 135
2. Sharing,
As far as I can understand you have Boot Camp and separate VM
If Boot Camp is formatted as NTFS, you can share it to VM as read only (in Parallels Dektop version 4 will be available also write), if Fat32, you can use it also for writing
See Shared Folders in Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/file/doc/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac_User_Guide.pdf on page 207

 

thanks,

is there any way for parallels to share/use the windows xp os that i have installed into bootcamp so that i only have one xp environment to install software and other typical windows customizations? is that described anywhere in your documentation?

 

Yes, actually you can create VM based on Windows installed in Boot Camp,
please see Parallels Desktop for Mac user guide from http://www.parallels.com/en/download/file/doc/Parallels_Desktop_for_Mac_User_Guide.pdf on page 267