Xp on Air via Parallels?

[shstiger2009]

Hey everyone, I have a MacBoor Air 13" base model coming today, and I'm wondering if I can do this. Basically I need XP, and on my MBP 13" running it with Parallels isn't a problem. I see that Windows 7 is supported on the Air, but is there any way I can do this-

1. Get the Air running.

2. Make Boot Camp partition.

3. Restore my Winclone copy of XP onto the new Boot Camp partition, and run it via Parallels?

Or will I have to just restart in Boot Camp to run XP?

Thanks in advance!

 

[aristobrat]

Do you have your XP system already setup in Parallels on your MBP?

If so, I'd think you could just install Parallels on your Air, and then copy the virtual machine from your MBP over to your MBA.

 

[KPOM]

Since XP isn't officially supported in Boot Camp, my advice would be to restore the Winclone file to your Boot Camp partition, and then have Parallels Desktop convert your partition into a VM file (which is not the same as using your Boot Camp partition within Parallels). After that, you can remove the Boot Camp partition and reclaim the drive space.

 

[shstiger2009]

Do you have your XP system already setup in Parallels on your MBP?

If so, I'd think you could just install Parallels on your Air, and then copy the virtual machine from your MBP over to your MBA.

Yeah, I already have XP set up with a Boot Camp partition. But I run it through Parallels.

Since XP isn't officially supported in Boot Camp, my advice would be to restore the Winclone file to your Boot Camp partition, and then have Parallels Desktop convert your partition into a VM file (which is not the same as using your Boot Camp partition within Parallels). After that, you can remove the Boot Camp partition and reclaim the drive space.

How do I convert the partition into a VM file?

 

[aristobrat]

How do I convert the partition into a VM file?

Did your copy of Parallels come with a tool called Transporter?

 

[shstiger2009]

Did your copy of Parallels come with a tool called Transporter?

I didn't...err...necessarily buy it...

But I can download it from the website.

 

[KPOM]

If you are looking for a free solution, VirtualBox is available.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

 

[57004]

How do I convert the partition into a VM file?

Just run it within Boot Camp on the MBP (natively) and then use the converter tool that Parallels provide to make it into a VM on the MBA. I think it was called 'Parallels Transporter' but I'm not sure if it still is because I switched to VMWare several versions ago.

Edit: Oh sorry, this was already mentioned, I read the thread too quickly. But make sure you run the tool from Boot Camp, I don't think you can use Transporter when it's already running as a VM.

 

[shstiger2009]

Just run it within Boot Camp on the MBP (natively) and then use the converter tool that Parallels provide to make it into a VM on the MBA. I think it was called 'Parallels Transporter' but I'm not sure if it still is because I switched to VMWare several versions ago.

Edit: Oh sorry, this was already mentioned, I read the thread too quickly. But make sure you run the tool from Boot Camp, I don't think you can use Transporter when it's already running as a VM.

And then after I do this, I can delete my Boot Camp partition?

 

[aristobrat]

And then after I do this, I can delete my Boot Camp partition?

After you verify that the VM on your Air is totally perfect, then it should be safe to delete the Boot Camp partition from your MBP.

 

[shstiger2009]

After you verify that the VM on your Air is totally perfect, then it should be safe to delete the Boot Camp partition from your MBP.

But how do I do this if I'm already running it in a VM? But it's coming from Boot Camp. How do I know it's running from only Parallels and not even accessing my Boot Camp partition.

 

[aristobrat]

Boot in XP on your MBP, then install the Transporter Agent for Windows.

On your Air, you start Transporter.

Your Air will connect over the network (hopefully your Pro and Air are connected to a network) to your Pro and copy XP from the Pro to a new VM on your Air.

You never have to create a Boot Camp partition on your Air using that method.

 

[shstiger2009]

Boot in XP on your MBP, then install the Transporter Agent for Windows.

On your Air, you start Transporter.

Your Air will connect over the network (hopefully your Pro and Air are connected to a network) to your Pro and copy XP from the Pro to a new VM on your Air.

You never have to create a Boot Camp partition on your Air using that method.

Ahh. This seems good. I'll let you know how it turned out in about...4 hours.

Thanks.

 

[shstiger2009]

Boot in XP on your MBP, then install the Transporter Agent for Windows.

On your Air, you start Transporter.

Your Air will connect over the network (hopefully your Pro and Air are connected to a network) to your Pro and copy XP from the Pro to a new VM on your Air.

You never have to create a Boot Camp partition on your Air using that method.

Another question. What if, in a year, I want to do a clean install of well, I guess Lion at the time, how would I do this without having another Mac to copy it from?

 

[MJedi]

Another question. What if, in a year, I want to do a clean install of well, I guess Lion at the time, how would I do this without having another Mac to copy it from?

Parallels creates a virtual machine packaged into 1 giant file. You just need to copy this file to an external drive. After you reinstall the Parallels application back on to the Mac, copy the file to the Parallels folder location. By default, this is in ~/Documents/Parallels. Then you can open the virtual machine in Parallels.

 

[aristobrat]

Another question. What if, in a year, I want to do a clean install of well, I guess Lion at the time, how would I do this without having another Mac to copy it from?

Remember that when you create a VM on your Mac, each VM shows up as its own single file on your Mac. It's actually a package (like your iPhoto library), but for all intents and purposes, you treat it as a single file. This means that if you want to move your XP VM from your Air over to an external drive (to free up space on your Air), you just move the file, like you would any other file on your Mac.

So before you do a clean install, you backup your personal files, right? (like your photos, iTunes, etc) Just be sure to backup your VM file.

I use VMWare Fusion, so the icons for the files look different than Parallels, but here's what a bunch of VMs on my external drive look like.

 

[aristobrat]

Another thing you might want to consider. If you use Time Machine to backup your Air, you might want to configure Time Machine to exclude your Virtual Machines.

Chances are, your Virtual Machines are going to be fairly big, and every time you use one of them, its file is going to change, which means Time Machine is constantly going to be backing it up. This can use a ridiculous amount of space in Time Machine.

 

[Patrick946]

If you move the XP Virtual Machine to an external Hard Drive, can it run form there, or does it have to be on the MBA to run?

 

[aristobrat]

It can run from an external drive. It's just a file. You can even put it on an external drive and take it over to another computer that has Parallels installed, and it should boot up there OK.

I use VMWare Fusion. I can take a VM on an external drive and boot it up on my Windows 7 workstation at work (using VMWare Workstation), use it all day, shut it down, then take that external drive home and boot it on my Mac (using Fusion) at night, just like I could do with a Word doc or an XLS spreadsheet.

 

[MJedi]

It can run from an external drive. It's just a file. You can even put it on an external drive and take it over to another computer that has Parallels installed, and it should boot up there OK.

I use VMWare Fusion. I can take a VM on an external drive and boot it up on my Windows 7 workstation at work (using VMWare Workstation), use it all day, shut it down, then take that external drive home and boot it on my Mac (using Fusion) at night, just like I could do with a Word doc or an XLS spreadsheet.

How is the performance when running the VM from the external drive?

 

[aristobrat]

How is the performance when running the VM from the external drive?

Meh, especially when you're used to the speed of the Air's SSD. The longest part is booting/shutting down the VM. Once it's up and things are caching in RAM, it's not so bad.