VMware and Bootcamp

Hey!

Is there a way to actually link or have VMware/Parallels run the already partitioned and already installed Windows XP?

Bootcamp is great. But I'd like to have my VMware Fusion linked to my Bootcamp partition so that when I open VMware, VMware would point towards the Partition instead of creating one. Is there a possible way to do this?

Also.. Like in OS10, I can actually access my Bootcamp partition. But in Windows XP, I'm not able to access my OS10 partition. Is there a way to fix this? ( I basically want to run my music and access my files on my OS10 Hard drive.

Thanks !

In both Fusion and Parallels you can create a virtual machine off an existing BC Windows partition. Very simple and quick. Download trial versions of both and see which you like best.

Cheers

XP to MAc

Lytheil,
I'm very new to Mac but I've been looking to access the Mac drive when I run XP. I believe the program MacDrive Mediafour | MacDriveis supposed to give you access to the MAc Boot drive from XP. I'll knw by the weekend because I intend to try it.
BillGriz

I would recommend using Parallels for running your XP boot camp partition while using mac osx. Just from my experience with these two programs i have had way better luck with Parallels.

humdingah said:

I would recommend using Parallels for running your XP boot camp partition while using mac osx. Just from my experience with these two programs i have had way better luck with Parallels.

Click to expand...

But Parallels is so slow and eats up all your memory! And unity in VMware us better than coherence in Parallels.

i guess the main reason I prefer parallels is because i was using VMware and ran into nasty blue screen stop errors when it would try and start up windows. I looked for a solution on google and found that it may involve some registry modifications which is an area i know little about. I gave parallels a try and i'm so far VERY happy. A few other things i like about parallels is that i can play listen to itunes and change tracks/adjust volume with the F keys on the keyboard. Parallels shows your active programs on your mac dock. Two finger scrolling works. and there is a really cool graphical transition from mac osx to windows and back. Some of these features may be the same in VMware but its parallels for me as of now.

Just FYI, I've been running Fusion since day one and have never had any issue with Windows XP (or Ubuntu, which I also run on it). No blue screens at all. Having said that, with respect to running Windows, both are very similar and the differences between them (in my opinion) are almost completely stylistic. I tried and liked both, but settled on Fusion because I preferred its interface and wanted to play around with various Linux flavors.

When you go beyond Windows, Fusion has a substantial advantage in its support of Linux and other operating systems, both natively and through their downloadable virtual machine library. Plus, it is better in a corporate and development environment. For a single user's personal Windows installation, however, it really is a tossup.

Cheers!

I think your analysis is very good.

Thank you for the input everyone. I'm still a VMware fusion guy. Had a very bad experience with Parallels. Very bad.

Is there another free solution instead of Macdrive? =x

You can try hfsexplorer.

Have not used this myself, but is suppose to give you the ability to read HFS, but not write to it.

Just read your comments on VMware fusion and I wanted to ask a question. I installed VMware fusion to run a virtual machine on windows OS. However, after thirty days I had to activate the license and my problem was that I couldn't connect to internet through the virtual machine. I tried all of the different sharing alternatives of the internet connection without success. Do you know what is the reason for not being able to connect to the internet, is there a blocking directly from Leopard that I need to modify?

Thanks for your help.
Cheers
Raul

Never had that problem though. I normally activate immediately once I've installed. Try reinstalling.

For internet connections, the problem is normally on the Windows side - if you have a wireless network, try disabling the security/encryption. It's not likely the sharing mode you select. Play around in Windows with the network connections and be sure it has some kind of connection. Good luck.