Question about BootCamp and Parallels

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Hello everyone,


Hope you can help me on this one to save me wasting some time and hard disk space...

Since I moved to a MacBook Pro I don't have a RAID setup for Mac OS X so I can use bootcamp, but I have a question about this.

If I install my Windows XP Pro x86 licence onto the machine using Bootcamp and activate it etc, can Parallels read from the partition or does it need its own installation (ie. do I need to install it twice?).

I know you can migrate from Bootcamp to a VM but is bootcamp still operational.

I really need to run Bootcamp for 3ds Max as I want to learn this app but the connivence of running Windows for say doing basic work in AutoCAD in OS X would come in handy too.

Hopefully all that makes sense to you all.
 
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I don't have Parallels but VMWare Fusion 3. I'm sure Parallels can but I can only say for sure that Fusion allows you to use the Windows partition you created with Boot Camp. That's what I'm doing and no you don't need to install Windows twice. If you do then you'll most likely need to get two product keys from Microsoft. You should go to the official Parallels website and read up on the FAQs if you want a definitive answer.

A lot of people like using Boot Camp and also running Windows simultaneously on Mac with either Parallels or Fusion so I'm sure Parallels can do what you are asking since Fusion does. I like the option of using one or the other. Most of the time when I need Windows I just use it under Fusion but there are few times when I want to boot natively into Windows.
 
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That's excellent news, thanks for your reply!

I am currently a Fusions user myself but Parallels 5 does look good, if it can't do this then at least I know what I have at the moment can do what I want. :)
 
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I am currently a Fusions user myself but Parallels 5 does look good, if it can't do this then at least I know what I have at the moment can do what I want. :)
I didn't realize you already had Windows installed. If you didn't originally install Windows with Boot Camp then you might have to call Microsoft and explain about the change in your computer configuration or get a new product key. Windows likes being a pain that way. It identifies an installation under Boot Camp different than an installation under Parallels/Fusion.

If you have Parallels/Fusion use your Boot Camp installation then Windows identifies that as one installation. What I did was install Windows with Boot Camp first and then have Fusion use my Boot Camp install. If you did it this way then I'm assuming Parallels won't have a problem because you will still be using your Boot Camp Windows install and that doesn't change unless you change you computer's hardware.

It makes things a little tricky by switching from Fusion to Parallels. I haven't done so myself so I can't say for sure. You might want to contact Parallels' support to make sure before getting Parallels 5. The issue is whether Windows will require you to get a new product registration key. Using the Boot Camp install shouldn't be much of a problem.
 
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At the time I actually didn't have it installed.

I used Bootcamp to create a 60Gb partition (which I on hindsight was way to much so I'll shrink it to 32Gb), installed Windows, re-activated and then used the disc that came with the Mac to install the drivers etc.

Re-booted to OS X, installed Fusion and saw the option to run the Bootcamp partition.

After installing VMWare Tools it works great, no activation probs or anything! :D

I tried running 3ds Max 2010 trial in it and well that isn't gonna work but I've decided to use Maya 2010 for Mac so I will be using VMWare for very light AutoCAD work and bootcamp for gaming. Sorted, thanks again for the info.
 

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