migrate real windows XP drive from dead computer

I've got a dead win xp laptop and i'd like to migrate its drive into parallels. I've read that the transport tool only works if you have a live computer. The drive works fine and i've read posts in this forum where people have successfully done it - but those posts were lacking details. The local mac store says that it can be done and will do this for $200 or so - but i'd like to save the money and do it myself. Can anyone point me in the right direction? By the way, i'm a complete mac noob.... thanks!

 

put the drive into a live pc / notebook and migrate from there. there probably are other ways but i'll bet they'll set you back by more than $200.

 

i don't have access to a live PC. I've purchased the transfer to Mac edition -what do i need to do to make the real hard drive usable by the transport tool?

 

I don't know whether you can actually connect the VM to a "real" NTFS drive - the Parallels VM settings only allow access to a BootCamp drive or an image. Maybe you can find a way of putting your hard drive into a box with a USB port and connect the hard drive to your Mac via USB. Or you could try reading your hard drive's content out to the Mac and converting it into an image file; the Mac's hard disk tool might be able to do that.

On the Mac, you'd need to create a Parallels VM and install Windows there. Then you could install the Acronis True Image software on your hard drive and use that software to migrate the drive's content into your VM.

I've never used Acronis True Image so I don't know whether that'll work. All in all I think it's the least hassle if you find a PC into which you could put your drive and migrate from there. Good luck!

 

i've pulled the drive out and put it into an enclosure - so i can certainly connect it to the mac via usb. How do i convert it to an image file that's usable by parallels transport tool? Should i find a way to use sysprep to strip out the hardware specific entries?

 

I have no clue what sysprep is... I'd try to mount the drive on the Mac and then use the Mac's hard disk tool to create a file from the drive. No idea if that's actually possible - it does work with CDs but not sure if you can do this with hard disks.

To mount the drive on the Mac you may have to use MacFUSE, I don't think that the Mac natively supports NTFS (assuming that that's your drive's file system).

Before you try to convert the drive to a file, though, why don't you attempt to mount the drive on the Mac and then just turn on Parallels to see whether you can get the drive to mount directly within the VM.

 

I have a variation on this problem and I'm also seeking a solution. For years I ran Windows XP on Parallels 3.0 Boot Camp on my Mac Book Pro with OS 10 (Tiger). Because everything ran just as I liked it, I resisted making any upgrades. Then some expensive hardware problems necessitated me buying a new Mac Book Pro with Snow Leopard. I was able to keep the original hard drive from my first machine in an inclosure as an external drive so I can import data and apps from it via USB. But I’m having a hard time with Parallels.

As I feared, Parallels 3.0 will not run with Snow Leopard, so I bought the upgrade to version 5.0. I've installed it on my new Mac Book and installed Windows XP fresh from the original installation disk. But I'm struggling with the transporter tool and I'm at a loss as to how to import anything off my old Parallels 3.0 which lives on my old drive (now as an external USB drive). It's showing as winxp.hdd, taking up 65 gigs of space - I'd love to access some of my old software, documents, pictures, etc.

 

I found this...

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/"http:/t41085-200.html

One of the posts there says:

"Let me say whats worked for me. I installed macfuse and the ntfs thing that gives you ntfs read and write on a mac. After doing that and installing parallels desktop I have no problem booting from my real partition. It unmounts my ntfs drive when its booting and remounts it after boot. It unmounts when I shut down then remounts.
Its been fairly simple, didnt know people were having trouble. Try macfuse and see if it helps"

Maybe that thread or someone on that forum could help.

 

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Portable hard drives