Configuring boot order

I installed the Parallels Desktop build 1832 RC for Mac. In the Preferences > Options > Booting Options section, you can choose the boot order for the virtual machine. It looks like if you want to boot from a CD first, you select the "CD, HD, Floppy" option. But if you wanted to boot from a floppy first, you would have to go back and choose the "Floppy, HD, CD" option.

Shouldn't there be an option for either "Floppy, CD-ROM, Hard Disk" or "CD-ROM, Floppy, Hard Disk"? That way, you can boot from either a CD or floppy without having to go back and switch the boot options each time. Many real PCs have these options in the BIOS.

And how about supporting PXE network booting or USB booting? I would like to be able to boot from a USB floppy drive or USB flash drive.

 

Thanks for your feedback! PXE and USB booting in our roadmap for future version.

 

Updates?

Any news on the booting from USB/PXE feature?

 

Me too.

Is booting from USB flash drive going to be supported?

 

Hello all,

These options have not been implemented yet. However we are planning to provide PXE and USB booting. Parallels developers are working hard to live up to your expectations.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Hi,

Any update on the PXE booting?

 

USB Booting

Any word on the USB booting?

 

added already as feature request

 

Booting Linux of USB

If it's linux you're trying to boot, it's possible to copy just your initrd and kernel to a virtual drive, then boot the rest of the OS off your USB disk.

I searched for this without luck for a while, so i just figured it out myself and surprisingly, it only took about half an hour to get everything up and running easily.

http://joefitz.net/computing/45-osx/102-parallelsserver

 

It seems you've had this in your "roadmap" for almost 4 years... I'm surprised you do not yet support it as it has been a basic feature in VMWare for some years, and as you're emulating a virtual PC it should be seen as an essential component.

Ah well, I guess I'll need to get VMWare instead to do this.

 

Any news yet on USB booting?

This thread needs completion. When will USB booting be available?

 

hi

Thanks for your great feedback.

 

Any updates in regards of the USB Boot Support?
Parallels 5/6 does support booting from USB devices?

Thanks

 

Hi,

I checked the specifications for Mac Desktop 6 and USB boot it is still not supported, then not worth an upgrade yet until Parallels confirms that feature is implemented.

Thanks

Gonzalo

 

good ider but i dotn ues floopys i dont think thay sell them stell:-{

 

I read here that your developers have been hard at work for over 3 years to implement the booting from a USB device feature. In what version of Parallels might we see all this hard work come to fruition? When might I be able to boot from a USB device in a parallels virtual machine?

 

Incompetence - Strive For It!

This thread was started FOUR years and SIX MONTHS ago and yet these developers STILL - after all this time - cannot implement a few lines of code in their product so that the option of USB booting is available in the BIOS of the virtual machine. Nevermind the fact that thumb drive booting has become the preferred method of delivering alternate operating systems or utility software that must have access to the installed OS on your hard drive outside of that drives boot environment. Booting like this truly SAVES TIME and ... uhhh ... did I mention its becoming the PREFERRED BOOT METHOD next to CD and DVD??? Thumb drives at 4 gigs are now in the sub $10 price range making them perfect and reliable bot medium for just about everything! I have technical support software (Such as the I.T. edition of Storage Craft's Shadow Protect which lets me do P2V and V2P migrations but now the product is ONLY usable via boot USB thumb drive) - CD Roms take three or four times as long to boot compared to thumb drive, so the real world is making the change ... why can't we ... oh ... I dunno ... PARALLEL the real world and implement thumb drive booting in Parallels? Open source BIOS code has the routines in it ... surely a smart developer over there at Parallels would be willing to spend a few hours and get this working? How difficult could it be?

I'm going to image a bootable thumb drive into a master boot image using Disk Utility, then rename it to .ISO and see if I can boot from it that way. I'm not at my desk right now but when I get there and try it, I'll post the results.

Mike

P.S. - I switched from Fusion to Parallels months ago because Fusion was slower than a ducks A$$ on a sheet of ice in the middle of winter ... and I've never looked back. So the USB thing isn't a deal breaker for me ... its more like ... completely irresponsible on your part to not have it implemented at this point in time, where USB booting has been a staple in PC hardware for almost a decade now. Stop striving for 2% higher performance and better gaming in Windows (who really does a lot of gaming in parallels anyways?)

 

+1 for USB boot

UPDATE: figured that boot from USB is possible: just add another Hard Disk Drive - selecting Boot Camp & USB drive partition, then specify it in boot order.

 

is it possible for AndreyU or someone who understands his success to explain it to me ? I need a dummies guide step by step. thx for any and all info

 

filmguy,

actually I don't feel much power to make dummy guide but I assure you it is really possible.
Plug in USB drive/stick, in VM hardware settings add another harddrive selecting your stick and specify it as boot item - marking it as bootcamp partition or something like this. then specify this partition as the 1st in boot order.
Start you VM and enjoy.

NB please, feel free to correct instructions above by your own experience.