Can Sierra be installed with Parallels 10?

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ParallelsU130

Member
Situation:
  • My OS of choice is 10.9.5, for which Parallels 10 is the correct version.
  • I have Sierra 10.12 installed in a separate partition (I have to use it occasionally)
  • It's a pain having to boot into Sierra separately, I'd rather have it as a VM within Mavericks 10.9
  • When I tried, Parallels 10 wouldn't "see" Sierra, the installer for which is in a dmg (it didn't see either the dmg or the installer)
Am I doing this wrong, or is it that Parallels 10 won't install Sierra? I need to know, to avoid wasting time trying the impossible.
 
ParallelsU130 said:
Situation:
  • My OS of choice is 10.9.5, for which Parallels 10 is the correct version.
  • I have Sierra 10.12 installed in a separate partition (I have to use it occasionally)
  • It's a pain having to boot into Sierra separately, I'd rather have it as a VM within Mavericks 10.9
  • When I tried, Parallels 10 wouldn't "see" Sierra, the installer for which is in a dmg (it didn't see either the dmg or the installer)
Am I doing this wrong, or is it that Parallels 10 won't install Sierra? I need to know, to avoid wasting time trying the impossible.
Click to expand...
Hello ParallelsU130, Parallels Desktop 10 is not compatible with Mac OS Sierra, you cannot install it as a virtual machine. Kindly follow the instructions from this link .
 
So Parallels 10 only supports as far as Yosemite? What about Parallels 11, will that support Sierra and if so, how much to upgrade from my registered copy of 10, to 11? (I've downloaded 11 from your direct link, but have not opened the dmg yet as I don't want any unpleasant surprises.) I certainly expect Parallels 11 to be considerably cheaper than 13 as it's now two versions old, though it's the last version I can run in Mavericks apparently.
 
Second question while you're pondering the previous one:

I downloaded OS X Yosemite and copied the download to an external HD. Back in Mavericks I tried to create it as a VM. First, it wouldn't find the OS on the HD which is very odd. So I dragged it onto the window manually and was asked to Continue.
Having done so, I got this message: "Failed to create a bootable disk image file for this version of OS X". What's going on? My copy of Yosemite is Apple's own download of the OS - why on earth can't Parallels use it?
 
ParallelsU130 said:
So Parallels 10 only supports as far as Yosemite? What about Parallels 11, will that support Sierra and if so, how much to upgrade from my registered copy of 10, to 11? (I've downloaded 11 from your direct link, but have not opened the dmg yet as I don't want any unpleasant surprises.) I certainly expect Parallels 11 to be considerably cheaper than 13 as it's now two versions old, though it's the last version I can run in Mavericks apparently.
Click to expand...
We are not selling Parallels Desktop 11 and 12 anymore. You can try to purchase it from the authorized reseller but you can only purchase a full version, as upgrades can be only purchase from our website.
 
ParallelsU130 said:
Second question while you're pondering the previous one:

I downloaded OS X Yosemite and copied the download to an external HD. Back in Mavericks I tried to create it as a VM. First, it wouldn't find the OS on the HD which is very odd. So I dragged it onto the window manually and was asked to Continue.
Having done so, I got this message: "Failed to create a bootable disk image file for this version of OS X". What's going on? My copy of Yosemite is Apple's own download of the OS - why on earth can't Parallels use it?
Click to expand...
You can refer this blog and try the same then check.
 
Ajith@Parallels said:
You can refer this blog and try the same then check.
Click to expand...

Ok, this is what happened. First, there isn't a Mavericks Recovery partition on this computer, I'm not sure why. However, I do have the Mavericks installer on a USB stick so although Parallels didn't recognise it, I could drag it onto the Wizard manually. Then it started to create a bootable disk image file instead of rejecting straight off as it did with Yosemite.
Unfortunately, after a while (I'm not sure how long* as I was letting it get on with the job while I did other stuff) it came up with the same error message - "Failed to create a bootable disk image file for this version of OS X". Why? What's wrong? The Mavericks installer is for a new installation and was used in the past to install Mavericks on an external HD so it should be ok.
(ETA *I tried a second time and noted the time - it failed after 6 minutes during which time it was the revolving blue "barbers pole", I don't know if that's normal or if there should be a progress bar? Certainly 6 minutes is a long time in software terms to decide that the file is corrupt, or whatever.)
 
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Update:

I decided to do this by reinstalling Snow Leopard Server into a new VM and upgrading Mac OS from within the VM.

First problem: my first VM was done by Parallels reading the SLS Install disk from the optical drive. This time, Parallels didn't recognise the inserted DVD even though the Mac did. (*After checking in Configure..., it turns out that the VM wasn't pointing to the optical drives, so that explains that.)

Solution: I duplicated the .pvm file of my SLS VM, renamed it and launched it. After a warning about which MAC address to use, this opened ok. I copied the El Capitan installer from external HD and upgraded the VM OS to 10.11. Parallels quirkily decided to ignore the name I gave the duplicated .pvm and called it "Snow Leopard Server (1)" - however, I worked out how to change this and now it's "El Capitan".
So, despite Parallels 10 APPARENTLY only supporting OS X up to Yosemite (10.10) I've managed to install El Capitan (10.11), and could probably upgrade it to Sierra if and when I choose.
 
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Update - I've also managed to install Sierra from within a VM created by Parallels 10.

I've failed with High Sierra, so Sierra is probably as far as Parallels 10 will enable you to go.
 
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