Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

VM Ware Fusiuon versus Parrells Desktop for Mac?

  • 10-02-2009 11:33am
    #1
    drunkmonkey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,696 ✭✭✭✭


    what's the best virtulisation software for OSX, I want to run vista in the background...tks


Comments

  • #2
    Sad Professor
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Entertainment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 22,693 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sad Professor


    This was asked recently here. VMWare imo.


  • #3
    J-blk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,906 ✭✭✭J-blk


    This has been discussed a lot around here, here's just a couple of threads on it:

    http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055285166

    http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055462669

    And one with some potential issues you might encounter with virtualized Vista:

    http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055346451

    As in every other thread on the subject I've posted in, my money goes to VMware's Fusion - it just seems like a more well thought out product to me. They are head-to-head with Parallels though in most things, so at the end of the day, I'd imagine it all comes down to if you can get a better price for one over the other (the RRP is also the same for both of them I think).

    BTW, Vista is a pain to run in a VM - you'd get better mileage with XP or even the current beta build of Windows 7. If you do go with Vista, you'd probably want to have 4GB on your Mac, not just 2GB or less...


  • #4
    drunkmonkey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,696 ✭✭✭✭drunkmonkey


    Thanks Guys...

    I'm after trying them both, VM ware seems to run a lot better, now how do I move evrything (I mean everything)from my Vista laptop to my Virtual Machine? any threads on that...tks


  • #5
    J-blk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,906 ✭✭✭J-blk


    drunkmonkey wrote: »
    how do I move evrything (I mean everything)from my Vista laptop to my Virtual Machine? any threads on that...tks

    If you are running Vista in Boot Camp currently then both Fusion and Parallels can convert your Boot Camp partition to a VM pretty easily.

    If it's a separate laptop, I'm not sure how to move the entire partition as is, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you have an external HDD, use that to backup everything you need, then start with a clean installation of Vista in the VM - it'll give you less hassle down the line that way...


  • #6
    drunkmonkey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,696 ✭✭✭✭drunkmonkey


    J-blk wrote: »
    If you are running Vista in Boot Camp currently then both Fusion and Parallels can convert your Boot Camp partition to a VM pretty easily.

    If it's a separate laptop, I'm not sure how to move the entire partition as is, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you have an external HDD, use that to backup everything you need, then start with a clean installation of Vista in the VM - it'll give you less hassle down the line that way...

    I'm not running boot camp, I don't know anything about it, I have a copy of OS X server I wouldn't mind getting working....will boot camp do this for me.. it's OSX Server 10.4 and i'm running 10.5 leopard...maybe i'll leave it for another day...

    back to the Vista, I'm just running the final windows updates in VMware..so it's a fresh install...what's the handiest way to back up everthing on the vista machine so I can port it onto the clean install...tks


  • Advertisement
  • #7
    Diarmuid
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,981 ✭✭✭Diarmuid


    How about Virtualbox? Open sourced and free alternative.


  • #8
    J-blk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,906 ✭✭✭J-blk


    drunkmonkey wrote: »
    I have a copy of OS X server I wouldn't mind getting working....will boot camp do this for me.. it's OSX Server 10.4 and i'm running 10.5 leopard...maybe i'll leave it for another day...

    Unfortunately, no - any version of OS X will not install via Fusion, Parallels or even Boot Camp, it just isn't possible. Even running an older version like Tiger is not possible... The VM/Boot Camp software can't emulate EFI which is required to install OS X - it would be like trying to install OS X on any old vanilla PC... You can however install another version of OS X to an external HDD and boot from it, if you are looking to have a dual boot of two OS X versions going...
    drunkmonkey wrote: »
    back to the Vista, I'm just running the final windows updates in VMware..so it's a fresh install...what's the handiest way to back up everthing on the vista machine so I can port it onto the clean install...tks

    What exactly are you looking to back up? You could copy your main personal folder (which should contain all documents, pictures, music, etc) to the Mac by sharing it out and copying everything over the network (that could be slow though, if you have many GBs to copy - using an external HDD if you have one, might be faster). Applications, etc will need to be reinstalled though in the Vista VM, for the most part.


  • #9
    drunkmonkey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 28,696 ✭✭✭✭drunkmonkey


    J-blk wrote: »

    What exactly are you looking to back up? You could copy your main personal folder (which should contain all documents, pictures, music, etc) to the Mac by sharing it out and copying everything over the network (that could be slow though, if you have many GBs to copy - using an external HDD if you have one, might be faster). Applications, etc will need to be reinstalled though in the Vista VM, for the most part.

    Music, Pictures and email, if I could move all my emails over that would be excellent....i'm using windows mail, can I back that up some way and move it on to the Virtual Vista....all the apps are ok as I have the install disks....

    There's about 100GB of music and pictures...and my email must be pretty big as well, it's catching eveything for the last 2 years and a lot of it is presentations that kind of thing..

    I also noticed under VM that it has only allocated Vista 1GB of ram, can you get it to give it a bit more...i've 4 gig in the imac, could I do a 50/50 split on the ram when using vista....

    thanks for the help...


  • #10
    J-blk
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,906 ✭✭✭J-blk


    drunkmonkey wrote: »
    if I could move all my emails over that would be excellent....i'm using windows mail, can I back that up some way and move it on to the Virtual Vista....

    Sorry, I can't be much help with that as when Vista first came out, I jumped ship to Mac OS X full time :). I do use it a bit at work, but not for email or anything. Googling seems to give pretty different approaches so I didn't want to point to any links that may not be applicable. Maybe ask your question in the Windows forums here? Remember, the VM behaves exactly like another physical Vista machine so your question can be asked as to how to transfer all mail and settings from one Vista PC to an new one - you don't need to factor in that you're using Fusion on Mac OS X at all...
    drunkmonkey wrote: »
    I also noticed under VM that it has only allocated Vista 1GB of ram, can you get it to give it a bit more...i've 4 gig in the imac, could I do a 50/50 split on the ram when using vista....

    Yes, you can adjust the memory any way you like. You need to actually shut down the Vista VM itself (like you would normally shut down Vista on your PC). When the VM powers off, you can use Fusion's console (and you can also access these from the menu bar) to alter most settings for that VM, including how much memory is allocated to it, if 3D acceleration should be enabled (basic DirectX 9 though, don't expect miracles), sound, input, all kinds of things. For most settings, your VM needs to be powered off and then you can change whatever you want and restart it.


Advertisement