Using Parallels

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.

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

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.

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.

Slydude said:

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.

Click to expand...

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

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.