Quick Answer: Still working on it…

The Whole Story

I have been using Parallels Desktop for Mac version 3.x, but recently upgraded to Parallels Desktop for Mac version 4.x.  Apparantly one of the features as of an update to version 3 (but still version 3) is that you can now use a Boot Camp install of Windows in Parallels.  (Previously, you could only use Boot Camp or Parallels, unless you wanted to run two separate installs of Windows)

In order to get the absolute full utlility and performance out of my Macbook (the all aluminum model purchased in late 2008, 2.4 GHz, 2G RAM, 256 VRAM) in order to play the newer games (and do work?), I want to move my current installation of Windows XP from a Parallels Virtual Machine to a Boot Camp install (a partitioned section of my hard drive).

Method to be attempted

I did a bit of searching and found a thread on the Parallels forums.  I found a post that gives to methods to moving a Virtual Machine to Boot Camp.  The first method is long (about 40+ steps), but the second (written by a Parallels affiliate) is shorter:

Username Eru Ithildur wrote:

Here is a much less extensive list (Geez bps1, you’ve got us beat!), but it might work:

1. Un-install Parallels tools.
2. Download Acronis to your VM.
3. Back-up your VM with Acronis to an external.
4. Download BootCamp.
5. Install BootCamp with Windows XP SP2 and the BootCamp tools per the instructions on Apple’s site.
6. Restore your Acronis image to BootCamp. (Your old data should now be there)
7. Create a new VM, use the Advanced configuration and BootCamp as a harddrive.
8. Boot into your new VM and install Parallels tools.

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XServe Xeon – 2×2 @ 2 GHz – 5 GB RAM – 750 GB 7200 RPM HD
15″ MacBook Pro – 2.33 GHz – 2 GB RAM – 120 GB HD – 256 MB Graphics

So this is the method that I will attempt.

Materials You Will Need

• Windows XP SP2 install disk
• Acronis (this software is included for free if you buy Parallels 4.x)
• Boot Camp Assistant (I am running Leopard, 10.5.6 and it was already installed)
• External hard drive (with enough space for your current Parallels Virtual Machine installation)

On the next page, I will continue the story and show the problems I ran into and what I did to fix them.

Background

I use a Mac because it is much more stable than Windows.  Also, the open source community is well plugged into working with Macintosh, from what I can tell.

I usually don’t buy software, because in most cases a group of people have come up with a better, free and open source, solution.

I decided to shell out the $79 (which is a bargin) for Apple’s iWork ’08 because I hate using Microsoft Word for Mac, and I am not too fond of NeoOffice (I like the native feel of the iWork’s GUI, which is also found in software like OmniGraffle and Navicat).  As many others have pointed out, Keynote is great, and Pages is pretty good.

Why am I frustrated

I am frustrated because Numbers is slow and lacking in functionality.  I understand that it is only at Version 1.0.2 (at the time of this writing), but I still want more.

I am not trying to do anything fancy, just paste a few hundred cells of data and get some graphs.  Every time I try to do something with a graph, my CPU usage skyrockets and it takes me about 5 minutes to do something as simple as add another column of data to a chart.

I can live without some of the functionality found in Excel, because I don’t need most of the fancy statistical analysis every day.  What I do need is for Numbers to do what it can, well.

My recommendation to the developers (I know that they read this site nearly every day… [sarcasm]) is to tone down the CPU heavy graphical data selection, and just give me a text or simple menu way of manipulating graphs and charts.  Some added flexability with chart making would also greatly enhance the Numbers experience. For example, why is it so hard to get x-axis labels?  And why, if I do it wrong the first time, must I re-create the chart from scratch to get it to work properly?

At this stage in its life, Numbers seems to be working against the current Mac mantra: “Easy and intuitive”.

Begging the Developers

Please, if you can hear me, fix Numbers so that I can use it without pulling out my hair.  Until then, I will be running Software Update every hour…. hoping…

How about you? If you have this problem, please let me know about it so that I can feel better.