Going from Parallels 3 to 8

Hello everyone,

I am currently running Parallels 3 on Mac OS 10.4, which so far has served me extremely well. However, due to some other applications I need, I have to upgrade to 10.6 Snow Leopard which, as far as I know, is not compatible with Parallels 3. Hence I would also need to get Parallels 8. From what I read so far here and in other articles, it seems that in theory this should work out quite well: I first close all VM applications, then upgrade 10.4 to 10.6, install Parallels 8 on the new OS and then convert my Parallels 3 Virtual Machine (Win XP) to the Parallels 8 format and am fine again. Is that right, or am I missing some important point here?

 

Uninstall Parallels Tools before converting.

 

Thanks! Just to prevent a misunderstanding on my part: I install Parallels 8, uninstall Parallels Tools, convert my VM and then install Parallels Tools again?

 

You uninstall Parallels Tools when you last boot the VM in PDM 3, that's the only way to uninstall them before conversion. When you launch the VM in PDM 8, it will be immediately converted, so you can't uninstall Parallels Tools in PDM 8 before conversion.

To avoid any problem, while still in PDM3:

* Defragment and run chkdsk (checkdisk) in PDM3.

* Uninstall Parallels Tools

* Eliminate/merge all snapshots in PDM3

* Be sure to correctly shut down the VM in PDM3, not suspended, no snapshots. Go to Start > Shut Down.

* Backup the VM.

Only now your VM is ready to be converted in the safest way possible.

 

Ok, I got it. Thanks a lot!