Struggling with Win 7 Bootcamped then pulled into Mac via Parallels VM

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I'm hoping someone will be able to recognize what is failing in my efforts to install Win 7 on my MBP (~2008: 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo) using Bootcamp, and then pulling that installation into Mac using a Parallels 5 virtual machine. It's being done by others, but for some reason I am struggling with just getting the bootcamp installation to be successful. I will give as much detail as I can think of, because the "mistakes" are probably in there somewhere...

I have upgraded to a 500 Gb HD, formatted the HD into one partition (after being prevented from continuing in Bootcamp Assistant because it was in more than one partition), and have formatted the partition using the GUID option (after finding out the Master Boot Record also kept Bootcamp Assistant from continuing). With each partition attempt I copied my cloned Mac Drive to the new Mac partition (about 2 hours a shot), using Carbon Copy Clone.

Having finally gotten to that point, I thought it would be clear sailing, because I was finally allowed to continue in Bootcamp Assistant (2.0) and create a 200 Gb partition for a Win 7 installation (the remainder left for Mac). I have a student copy of Win 7 Pro, which won't allow me to have a valid installation unless XP is present during installation. So I installed XP as Bootcamp Assistant continued. I used the XP installation menu to change the FAT 32 to a NTFS format (200Gb partition), and installed XP, then installed Win 7 on top of XP. I did the Apple update somewhere in there, and am confused about getting the 3.1 upgrade for Bootcamp to install. I think I have to have 3.0 present, but can't seem to find it. Now when I hold down the option key on bootup, the Mac partition is listed as "EFI". I have seen something that says that occurred because my clone I copied back came from a smaller volume (which it did, much smaller). Also, the installed bootcamp in Win 7 only lists the Win 7 partition, not the Mac.

When I go to attempt to install the Bootcamped Win 7 into a virtual machine in Mac using Parallels 5, it didn't seem to matter what folder I pointed to in the Win 7 partition, it would not create/save a VM.

That's where this stands. I have not seen this detailed on the forums in this way, so I hope this level of detail serves as an aid for those struggling later after the answers come "flooding" in. It looks to be a great 3 way configuration for the MBP.

Thanks in advance...

Dave :D
 

chscag

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You definitely have a rather complicated problem here. Let's address the Windows installation and what may have happened. Parallels is not going to work right until that is resolved.

My guess is that because the XP boot sector and Win 7 boot sectors are different, that during the install process something got overwritten. I find it strange that you had to have XP installed before Win 7 Pro would install. There is no way that XP can be upgraded to Win 7 (according to MS). Win 7 would have had to do a clean install over XP which makes it kind of senseless to have XP installed in the first place.

It looks like you're able to boot to your MacIntosh HD since you seemed to have installed Parallels. However, you indicate that your MacIntosh HD is listed as EFI? A normal MacIntosh HD OS X factory installation contains two partitions: One small partition of 200 MB (EFI) and the remaining partition which contains the operating system and applications.

Your MacIntosh HD should not be listed as EFI. I have used CCC many times to clone a smaller HD to a larger and have never seen that happen. I suspect something went wrong there. I'm at a loss as to how to resolve this without starting over. That would mean reinstalling everything including your Mac operating system.

Let us know what you want to do so we can advise.
 
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Thanks for the reply. I have found some answers, one being that you can install a student upgrade Win 7 disk without having XP present. I will post the solution I ran across for those who find this and have a student upgrade copy of Win 7.

You can easily do a clean install with this student upgrade version, you just have to install twice.

1. Follow this link to create your bootable Win7 iso, then burn it to a DVD. ->Make bootable iso from student d/l - Windows 7 Forums

2. Then boot from the DVD. When prompted, Click the option to do "Custom Installation" aka clean install.

3. When you're prompted for the product key leave it blank, and click next. The upgrade version product key will not work with a "custom install". (A blank cd-key gives you 30 day trial?)

4. Once windows is fully installed and boots up, run setup.exe on the Windows 7 DVD.

5. Now when prompted for the type of installation choose "Upgrade" (you're upgrading your clean install which is as clean as you can get with an upgrade)

6. Enter the Product Key from DigitalRiver email.​

I want to be able to keep my original install of Mac, so I'm going to look at copying that again. The "EFI boot" signification is only in the hold-option-key boot. In Mac, the drive shows up on the desktop as originally named. I also have picked up a copy of 10.6, and will upgrade my Mac OS, in hopes of getting the latest Bookcamp versions.
 

chscag

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OK, thanks for posting back. The installation "trick" you used to install Win 7 clean has been around for quite some time and works for all versions of Win 7 that are designated upgrade.

The Snow Leopard upgrade will give you Boot Camp 3.0 and afterward 3.1 as a download from the Apple site. Let us know how it went.
 
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Well, I'm almost there. Installing Snow Leopard after copying back my saved HD from the small 60 Gb HD seemed to make it all work. I now have Win 7 installed as a Bookcamp installation, and both show up as they should on option hold at reboot (no more EFI). Then I installed Parallels and installed a VM of the Bootcamped Win 7 installation. That was very simple and direct. And the printers on the network were able to be seen and installed immediately on Win 7.

My biggest problems seemed to be not partitioning using GUID, and needing to upgrade to 10.6 and get the latest Bookcamp Assistant and Bootcamp versions.

The only issue remaining seems to be activation. I got the Win 7 activated in Bootcamp, then in VM it called for it again and used the phone option, but now it's asking for it in Bootcamp again upon reboot in Win 7. I haven't done anything about it yet, but I am sure someone has experienced this before. What is the solution.

Thanks again in advance. ;)
 
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Be sure you install the guest tools in Parallels. it's the guest tools that sort out the activation bit. I had the same problem using Fusion.

Cheers
 
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I checked on this, and the tools are installed. I went ahead with the repair install. Any suggestions?
 
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Guest tools should solve it actually. Sometimes you have to reinstall them a few times. Did you update your Windows or make changes to the virtual machine? sometimes that triggers a new activation scenario.
 
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here is what I presently have...

Win 7 in bootcamp is waiting for activation, having used the key code prior to the VM, it now says I can't use that.

Win 7 from Vm is successfully activated, using the phone feature I entered the code as it was given to me over the phone.

So nowhere is the original key code working, and while I can go to the VM and it's good, I only have 12 days left on the bootcamp before it does what, I don't know. I'm afraid if I activate the Bootcamp Win 7, I'll go back to the VM and it won't be activated. What should I do?
 

chscag

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You don't have a choice do you? Call in and get the BC installation of Win 7 activated over the phone. As long as the VM of Win 7 you have installed via Parallels doesn't change, it should not ask for activation again. The only time it's going to nag you about activation is if the hardware detection wizard that runs automatically senses the type of change that would kick in the activation process again.
 

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