[Chazzer3]

Hey Guys,

Just a quick question, I'm wondering whether parallels can use a Windows XP installation that you did with boot camp? So you only need to install it once?!

Thanks a lot,

Charlie -

[analogika]

Yes.

[Chazzer3]

Excellent, thanks!

[analogika]

Note that one of the advantages of running Parallels from a disk image (virtual drive) is that you can set it all up with all your software and then simply make a back-up of that disk image.

If and when Windows goes and shits itself or *anything* happens to the Windows installation within Parallels, you can just blow that image off the disk, restore from the back-up and be up and running a virgin system within *minutes*, as opposed to the *hours* it takes to re-install everything.

[NobleMatt]

i was gonna post as topic about this as i have just set up boot camp and thought i read somewhere about been able to use boot camp in parallels.
how do ppl find it that run parrallels into bootcamp (and how do u do it?)
and for the above reason is there a way of having 2 parallels (say one into bootcamp and one into virtual image) just for security

Thanks Matt

[mpancha]

I personally use VMWare Fusion, for all purposes, it does the same thing as Parallels. Its just personal preference.

I haven't used Parallels since version 2, but its the same principle in VMWare. IN VMWare it found the bootcamp partition and shows it to me in a list of Virtual Machines I can run. I can either run that, or the image of XP I have on my OS X partition. They both run just as fast, but I prefer the running bootcamp in the virtual machine method b/c that way, when I do boot up into windows via bootcamp, my settings/applications, etc. stay the same.

[TheoCryst]

I'm more interested in VMWare, but this question applies to both Fusion and Parallels: how is activation handled when switching between Boot Camp and virtualization? Can I simply activate once and have it preserve everything?

[mpancha]

TheoCryst >> on VMWare I had already activated Windows in Bootcamp. I was prompted again when I first loaded the VM, but it went through without a glitch.

a little tip: if you do have to activate and the online method doesn't work, just call them and tell them you had to reinstall, and leave it at that. The more info you give them (explaining virtual machine, etc) the more the CSRs will give you grief.