04-09-2010, 06:46 PM

Hi -

Thinking seriously of switching from PC to Mac. PC user for many, many years and there are a few business programs for which a Mac replacement is not available.

I own Acronis True Image 2009 and I'm able to make an image of my PC on an external disk. With Parallels, is it possible to just create a VM and "paste" that image into it? Acronis makes a *.tib file - is this the same as an .iso file?

This would be so much easier than installing a copy of Windows and then migrating everything, especially since a lot of my software was downloaded and I don't have the install disks (including Acronis).

This will be a critical issue in my decision on whether or not to switch. Thinking of the IMac 27.

Thanks.

04-09-2010, 07:01 PM

Those two file types are not the same thing, but you can make a bootable .tib according to these folks. I'm not sure if this link will help at all though. I can't answer your question, but thought I'd drop off this piece of info.

Sorry, and hope someone here who has more experience with this software can help!


Zep

04-09-2010, 10:41 PM

No, it's not possible to paste an Acronis *.TIB file into Parallels or Fusion. A image created by Acronis TI is not the same as an ISO file. As a matter of fact, Acronis software will not work properly or at all in Parallels and Fusion. I couldn't even get it to work to make and restore an image from a Windows partition created using the Boot Camp assistant. The reason TI does not work properly is that Mac hardware does not use a BIOS. Mac machines use EFI.

If you intend to use Parallels as your VM software, you will have to install Windows within the VM.

Regards.

04-09-2010, 11:20 PM

I am somewhat new to this but there is a technique which apparently uses vmware Fusion to import an existing PC installation into a virtual machine. VMware Fusion - Migrating Your Windows PC to Your Mac Easily This might be helpful for your task but I am not sure.

04-09-2010, 11:37 PM

Originally Posted by Slydude

I am somewhat new to this but there is a technique which apparently uses vmware Fusion to import an existing PC installation into a virtual machine. VMware Fusion - Migrating Your Windows PC to Your Mac Easily This might be helpful for your task but I am not sure.

This looks like it might do it. That is, as long as Microsoft doesn't give me a problem with activating it. Thanks much!

04-10-2010, 01:32 AM

Your Welcome. Hope that helps. If you decode too try this let me know how it works. I was considering doing that with an installation that my wife has but it seems unnecessary since she only needs the data files not the entire installation.

I had some issues initially with serial numbers for Windows XP. It installed fine on the Boot Camp partition but when I used the Boot Camp partition in either Fusion or Parallels Windows would complain about needing to be reactivated. I wasn't running Windows a lot at the time so I just used Boot Camp. Now that I have to run Windows more often I am using the current versions of Parallels and Fusion and neither seems to complain.