Parallels/Boot Camp migration

[MyNameIsSam]

Seeing as Parallels now has Boot Camp support, would it be possible to copy my already existing Virtual Machine to a Boot Camp partition?

 

I know it should be possible, but is there a relatively simple solution and/or has anybody already done this?

[Embio]

interesting - Ghost?

[MyNameIsSam]

I thought about using Carbon Copy cloner, but it doesn't have support for .hdd files.

[manmal]

I am interesting in doing that too ... installing a virtual parallels disk to a real one ; i am just trying to figure how it may work .

I am thinking it could be done following these steps :

 

Preliminary Steps :

 

1) Create a bootcamp partition on your mac.intel main hd .

2) Format an external usb2 hd partition as fat32 in your mac.intel using disk utility (or use another internal partition if you created one at osx setup). It has to be FAT32 btw and not HFS+.

 

Now :

 

1) Connect the external usb hd (or partition) formatted as FAT32 (not HFS+!)

2) Launch a trueimage recovery cd (or ghost) from the virtual machine (parallels or vmware fusion) and let the vmachine to boot from such cd

... of course both usb hd and cd must be recognized as "native" by the virtual machine(obvious, but i wanted to say it anyway)

3) Make a trueimage (or ghost) image clone of the vmachine's hd (under mac it's a file but under the vmachine it is seen as a vm's hd!) giving an ext usb2 hd path as destination for the image; you have select the option to split files created into 2 gb ones due to the limitation of fat32 system in size of files (maybe it's done automatically, but if that's not the case setup it properly before making the image).

4) Restore the image to the physical bootcamp partition (previously created in your mac-intel) of your harddrive . To do this, you need to launch trueimage (or ghost or whatever you want) from the real-machine booting from bootcamp.

 

There may be some problems with drivers , i don't know if it will boot native or it will give bluescreen when the "real machine" boots .

 

If it gives problems, perhaps the best solution is to remove some drivers from vmachine in windows xp's safe mode (harddrive controllers, and so on) immediately before creating the image letting them to be recognized as soon windows xp starts from the true machine (bootcamp partition).

 

IMPORTANT ! Do not remove your vm file until you have a working bootcamp partition ... for your safe ... !

I know it may be obvious , but i think it may work with vmware fusion too (that supports bootcamp too,if i am not wrong).

 

When i will have some spare time , i will give a try and will report any success or not.

 

Mal

[quaestor]

This is on native Windows... but I have actually done this and it worked. I used Acronis recovery CD (booting into a VM) to restore from a physical drive into a VM. Obviously the reverse of what's being discussed, but offered for your consideration ;-)

 

I am interesting in doing that too ... installing a virtual parallels disk to a real one ; i am just trying to figure how it may work .

I am thinking it could be done following these steps :

 

Preliminary Steps :

 

1) Create a bootcamp partition on your mac.intel main hd .

2) Format an external usb2 hd partition as fat32 in your mac.intel using disk utility (or use another internal partition if you created one at osx setup). It has to be FAT32 btw and not HFS+.

 

Now :

 

1) Connect the external usb hd (or partition) formatted as FAT32 (not HFS+!)

2) Launch a trueimage recovery cd (or ghost) from the virtual machine (parallels or vmware fusion) and let the vmachine to boot from such cd

... of course both usb hd and cd must be recognized as "native" by the virtual machine(obvious, but i wanted to say it anyway)

3) Make a trueimage (or ghost) image clone of the vmachine's hd (under mac it's a file but under the vmachine it is seen as a vm's hd!) giving an ext usb2 hd path as destination for the image; you have select the option to split files created into 2 gb ones due to the limitation of fat32 system in size of files (maybe it's done automatically, but if that's not the case setup it properly before making the image).

4) Restore the image to the physical bootcamp partition (previously created in your mac-intel) of your harddrive . To do this, you need to launch trueimage (or ghost or whatever you want) from the real-machine booting from bootcamp.

 

There may be some problems with drivers , i don't know if it will boot native or it will give bluescreen when the "real machine" boots .

 

If it gives problems, perhaps the best solution is to remove some drivers from vmachine in windows xp's safe mode (harddrive controllers, and so on) immediately before creating the image letting them to be recognized as soon windows xp starts from the true machine (bootcamp partition).

 

IMPORTANT ! Do not remove your vm file until you have a working bootcamp partition ... for your safe ... !

I know it may be obvious , but i think it may work with vmware fusion too (that supports bootcamp too,if i am not wrong).

 

When i will have some spare time , i will give a try and will report any success or not.

 

Mal