New iMac, need some Parallels setup help

People,
I currently use an older iMac (2006 vintage) running OS Leopard (10.5.8) and Snow Leopard (10.6.8). I use Parallels 5 (Build 5.0.9376). I have a separate partition for all my virtual machines and that partition is formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled). All my virtual machines (Windows XP and Windows 7) work fine.
I just bought a new iMac (late 2013) with Yosemite (10.10.1) with a 1T fusion drive and 8G of RAM. I want to transfer all my virtual machines to my new iMac and have some questions:
1. I assume the best choice is to upgrade to Parallels 10 which is compatible with Yosemite but in actuality I don't need all the whistles and bells of total integration between my Mac side and Windows side. The most I do is a drag and drop of an occasional file between the two. Is Parallels 10 my best choice, or would an earlier version work as well (I assume my current Parallels version 5 won't work on my new iMac)?
2. The fusion hard drive on the new iMac will only allow me to create two partitions, so I'll have one for Mac stuff and the other for all Windows stuff. There is an option to format the new partition as MS-DOS (FAT). Should I format the new partition as MS-DOS (FAT) for my Windows virtual machines or should I format it as a standard Mac OS Extended (journaled) like I did on my old iMac and why?
3. I have 5 virtual Windows machines, 4 are Windows XP and one is Windows 7. All are 32 bit, as are the various versions of Office loaded on each. Each machine is a .pvm file on the PC Drive partition of my old iMac. Will I simply be able to transfer each .pvm file from my old iMac to my new iMac or will it be more complicated than that? If it is a simple matter of transferring the .pvm files, will the formatting of my PC Drive partition on my new iMac matter?

John

 

Obviously this is not the correct forum for my questions although I would have hoped a moderator would tell me that and/or move it to the appropriate forum. I'll try again in a different forum.
John

 

1. Only versions 9 and 10 are supported on Yosemite. But since you can only buy version 10 right now, the question is moot.

2. The Virtual machines do not need to be in a different partition, nor they did back in version 5. They work best on a Mac OS formatted partition.

3. Simply copy the pvms, and see how it goes.

 

Sorry about my non-response a minute ago. This forum apparently worka differently from other forums I normally respond on and I guess I hit the wrong button.
First, thank you for finally replying. I'd give you a vote, but I'm afraid I'll hit the wrong button and lose what I have.
My responses to your answers:
1. Not entirely true. Parallels 10 is apparently the only version available directly from Parallels but I found that Parallels 9 is still available from Newegg, for a limited time. For simple basic use (i.e. running Office under Windows XP or 7 as a virtual machine under Yosemite with no extra whistles and bells), is there any reason to get Parallels 10?
2. Yes I realize I do not need hard disk partitions to use Parallels. I have always liked the idea of separate partitions to better keep the Windows VMs separate from my Mac side. The rest of the world probably wants more integration, I don't. What I want, is a Windows PC and a Mac but I don't want two separate computers and I don't want to have to re-start (e.g. Boot Camp) to switch between the two. However, now that I have a fusion drive which is partly made up of flash memory for greater speed on often used applications, it occurs to me that having two separate partitions may not be my best approach, so I think I will try using a single partition this time around.
3. That was the approach I was going to try anyway. I just hope there is no little gotchas in the .pwn files created under Parallels 5 versus those created under Parallels 9 or 10. That would be a real bummer to have to rebuild the 5 separate Windows VMs I use.
John

 

1. Version 9 support will expire before the next release of OS X (2 year support with updates policy).
2. Sorry, but there's 0 benefit and some issues for having a separate partition, in terms of security or integration it's exactly the same, Windows is already contained in terms of data inside the virtual disk. If you are thinking in terms of containment and viruses it's exactly the same, if it hypothetically could get out of the VM container it could also 'jump' to a different partition.
As for the issues, it's much much less flexible in terms of space, imagine you have a 1 TB HD, you decide to divide into 850 for OS X and 150 for your VMs, later on you are tied for space in your VM partition while you have plenty elsewhere, or vice-versa, it's just not worth it.
3. Uninstall Parallels Tools on PDM5, shut down, then copy over.

 

Thanks for hanging in there with me.
1. Other than support directly from Parallels, for my stated use, is there a good reason to go with Parallels 10 (e.g. more stable under Yosemite, runs faster, etc.)? Although on the surface this item may seem like a silly question but from experience I've found (more than once) the the latest isn't always the greatest, so I'd like to know what I'm getting in to.
2. One partition it will be.
3. Okay now I'm a little confused. And again, please bear with me. What exactly is "PDM5" (I assume "P" stands for Parallels and the "5" is the version, but what is the "DM" part)? How do I uninstall Parallel Tools? Is that the same as uninstalling Parallels itself? If so, I know how to do that.
John

 

PDM = Parallels Desktop for Mac, Parallels makes other products, this is the full name.
1. I think you should be asking if there is good reason to go with 9 instead, because that is the odd option here, and my answer is no.
3. Windows > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Parallels Tools

I hope you are clarified.

 

Specimen,
Again thanks for the help.
Okay, now the PDM part makes sense but for reference, in the future when responding to a user post, keep in mind that not everybody knows all the acronyms.
1. The reason I asked about Parallels 9 versus Parallels 10, is that I read a couple user posts and one of them said that Parallels 10 was running slower on Yosemite. The response was a rather complex workaround to resolve delays caused by Mac interrupts taking up CPU assets. Not something I want to deal with. Also, although an older version doesn't have new features available in the latest version, an older version, (assuming it's not too far removed like my current version 5), has more "time in the field" so to speak. More problems have been uncovered and resolved or at least addressed with workarounds. Case in point. A couple years ago I upgraded my Mac OS 10.5.8 (Leopard) to 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard). When I did so, I had three major problems - my HP printer no longer worked, Safari worked poorly when responding on forums I use, and Mail didn't work properly (Inbox was blank). I've since got a new pinter, switched to Firefox and stuck with Leopard for everyday use because of Mail. I'm fearful of finding out that Mail still may not work properly when I finally get everything transferred over to my new iMac with Yosemite. I'm still on the fence as to which version of Parallels I'll use but i'll consider this item closed.
3. Do I need to uninstall Parallels tools for each of my 5 virtual machines?

John
P.S. The forums I use provide for a poster to "vote" as helpful or mark as "answer" for those who respond to their question/issue. I don't see those options in this forum so I'll assume a "like" in this forum is the equivalent. If not, please clue me in so that I may properly give you credit for your time and help.

 

3. Yes.

In the same row where you find the 'Like', there's a 'Best Answer' button, those are all the options, thank you.

 

Specimen,
Okay I think i got it pretty well wrapped up now. I have decided that I'll go with Parallels 10. If I have issues, you'll likely see me back in the forum although I see that the Parallels folks indicate I will have 30 days of live support.
I do have a little issue with uninstalling Parallels tools on each VM but I'll work around that. Since I use Windows on a daily basis, (7 days a week), to participate in forums, I was hoping to temporarily copy the .pvm files, as is, to my new iMac, make sure everything is running okay and then remove them from my old iMac. But if I must uninstall Parallels tools before I transfer the .pvm files to the new iMac, I will be "off-line" with my forums on my old iMac if I run into issues on the new iMac. However, my workaround is to uninstall Parallel tools on one of my seldom used VMs, do the transfer of that .pvm file and see how it goes.
With regard to giving you credit, I must not have something set up correctly. Below each of your replies all I see is a "Report" button near the left middle and "Like" and "Reply" on the right. I do not see a "Best Answer" button. From my own experience on the forums I use I am sensitive to the fact that those who respond are normally volunteers that give freely of their own time and expertise to help others and I am always appreciative when a poster recognizes my help as beneficial, or in some case even a lifesaver, in helping to resolve their particular issue. That's how we get "paid".
John