Virtual Machine

[StellenboschStudent]

Ok, so, I have been using bootcamp ever since I got my Mac. By now I have more and more apps for Windows I need to use, but I don't want to reboot to Windows all the time... So VMWare looks like the best solution to date. But, is there a method how I can get my bootcamp Windows drive onto that virtual machine? Or is it a fresh install? If it is a fresh install, can I just copy and paste the Windows directories, or any other, easier method?

 

[bwana]

Parallels and VMWare (I think) both let you boot from a Bootcamp partition - AFAIK virtual box currently doesnt let you do that but then it's free where as the others arent.

 

[Fuzzbox]

you can use a program called paralell or fusion .These run as programs without dual booting. Hope this helps

 

[bsd242]

Both VMware fusion and Parallels will boot a bootcamp partition out the box - you will need to load the respective tools to get native graphics support and all the bits and pieces that make it useable. That will (or, should) leave the bootcamp installation totally intact.

1 caveat: depending on your windows version and the current state of the nation, it will require re-activation as it detects being booted by the VM as a total hardware change. there are a few articles on this on the respective product forums.

I used to use parallels and just switched to VMWare fusion, running windows 7 off my bootcamp partition. Works well enough that I haven't booted natively into windows since I installed it 2 weeks ago, and I use Visual Studio and SQL server in the VM which are fairly resource intensive.

I didn't experience any issues with the 'migration' at all...

 

[kilos]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VMware_Fusion_and_Parallels_Desktop

Bought VMware Fusion , installed like a dream and my VMware images prepared
on VMware Workstation 5 (XP) worked with no problems at all when copied to Mac and opened in Fusion, download a trial version and test for yourself.

New VMware Fusion 3 being released 27 Oct

 

[gumpie]

Get sun Virtual box. Its free and it works really really well. I am using it for Microsoft .Net development.

 

[bwana]

Get sun Virtual box. Its free and it works really really well. I am using it for Microsoft .Net development.

It does indeed work well but afaik doesnt yet let you use a bootcamp partition.

 

[phiber]

Thrown one of these windows 7 release candidates into a VM, doesn't run as smooth as i would have expected...

 

[bwana]

Thrown one of these windows 7 release candidates into a VM, doesn't run as smooth as i would have expected...

It's windows - throw as much ram at is as you can spare and expect it to still suck

 

[phiber]

Threw 2 gigs it at... shouldn't have to throw more...

 

[bsd242]

my 7 installation (off bootcamp) is working perfectly with 512MB. It did get extremely unstable in between VMware Tools updates - latest update resolved that.

 

[bwana]

my 7 installation (off bootcamp) is working perfectly with 512MB. It did get extremely unstable in between VMware Tools updates - latest update resolved that.

I guess a lot depends on what you're using windows for and what type of machine you're using - ||s wanted me to throw a lot of ram at it and so far it doesnt look like virtualbox is much different.

I wouldnt install W7 on a real pc with less than 1gb of ram if I could avoid it.

 

[bsd242]

I wouldnt install W7 on a real pc with less than 1gb of ram if I could avoid it

agreed