pc main internal drive converted to usb drive to run windows apps via macpro with xp

[B A S]

Hope someone can tell me if this is possible to do...
I am about to buy a new Macpro and I want to be able to run the apps installed on my pc.
I have been told that it's already possible to convert the internal drive containing everything to a new housing turning it into an external drive to use with a new pc.... But I don't want to buy another pc... this time the switch is to a Macpro.
I'm expecting to run mac apps and run bootcamp or parallels ( or both ).
Could I connect the converted pc harddrive (basically it turns into an external pc harddrive) to the macpro and run the applications that are installed on the now external harddrive?

Hope this makes sense.
Thanks

 

[Guiyon]

Most likely not. Windows applications tend to install a ton of stuff to the registry, so that rules out running them from a separate Windows install. In addition, Windows does NOT like booting from USB, especially with the BIOS emulation layer used on Macs. Your best bet would be to copy over your documents and reinstall the necessary apps OR just install the drive into the Mac Pro (assuming it's SATA) and try to reconfigure it with the proper drivers.

 

[B A S]

Thanks Guiyon,
Would it be possible if I had a new install of Windows Xp booting from the Macpro on a partition which then looks at the old harddrive which gets converted to a USB external (of course the current seperate copy of xp on the external drive not being the boot up one )?

 

[Guiyon]

No because you still run into the registry problem. All the necessary registry entries for your installed applications are on the external drive which is not booted and therefore its hive files don't exists as far as the system is concerned. Some applications may run without the entries but most probably won't.

You MAY be able to get Parallels to boot off the USB drive but I doubt it's supported. Your best bet is to reinstall everything; Windows tends to be prone to crashing and general instability when moved between completely different systems unless it was cleaned up before and after the move (even then it's a crapshoot).

 

[B A S]

Thanks again Guiyon.
I guess I have to accept the re-install of at least one hundred apps/plugins all with seperate registrations...

 

[dimme]

With VMware fusion you can convert the old machine into a virtual machine and then run that on your mac. I have 3 old PC running as vertual machines on my mac pro.

 

[B A S]

Dimme, that sounds like it might be the solution for me.
Do the virtual pcs utilise all the Mac cpu power/speed etc or is there a typical compromise fall off?
It would still be MUCH better than the pc's current power (Athlon 3200Xp+ with 1 gig ram) New MacPro most probably the 2.66ghz 8-core with 16 gig of ram.

 

[dimme]

Dimme, that sounds like it might be the solution for me.
Do the virtual pcs utilise all the Mac cpu power/speed etc or is there a typical compromise fall off?
It would still be MUCH better than the pc's current power (Athlon 3200Xp+ with 1 gig ram) New MacPro most probably the 2.66ghz 8-core with 16 gig of ram.

Emulation is good but not as good as running boot camp. It really depends what apps you are running. For example word and excell run really fast but games don't and some games don't work at. Go to http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ to learn more about converting your PC.