Can I get rid of Bootcamp and keep Fusion XP installation?

[desertratr]

I am confused about Bootcamp and Fusion on a Mac. I installed XP to Bootcamp.

Then I installed Fusion and installed XP there (it has been a while and

I have forgotten the details. I can't recall if I had Fusion copy the Bootcamp intallation). I always run XP from Fusion. It works

fine. Recently I decided to boot into XP directly. When XP came up it

told me it wasn't activated. So I went back to OS X / Fusion to use XP.

1) Do I have two separate XP installations? Or just two different entry points to the same installation?

2) If I have two installations can I just delete the Bootcamp partition?

3) How would I go about activating the Bootcamp XP installation?

Thank you

[rcardona2k]

1) Do I have two separate XP installations? Or just two different entry points to the same installation?

You definitely have a Boot Camp partition if you can start your Mac directly into XP. To determine if you've imported your Boot Camp machine to a separate Fusion machine check your Virtual Machine library to see if you have more than one machine. If not, it's a safe bet you only have one copy of XP on your machine.

2) If I have two installations can I just delete the Bootcamp partition?

No, not without importing your machine into a Fusion virtual machine. Otherwise you will lose your only machine.

3) How would I go about activating the Bootcamp XP installation?

If you want to keep the Boot Camp partition as your only machine, start your XP machine under Fusion and ensure you have the latest VMware Fusion Tools installed with Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools. Once the latest Tools are running, boot back into XP directly under Boot Camp and activate Windows. If you get an error about exceeding activations, you can contact Microsoft and they will assist you through activation. It's a hassle but they will honor it, many times it's just a call to an automated call system.

[Mycatisbigfoot]

Well I would look making a new VM so you can take out the drivers for bootcamp, as having the Vm fusion and the boot camp drives does slow the computer down alot (Windows I mean)

but you can but i do not have a clue, sorry

[desertratr]

+You definitely have a Boot Camp partition if you can start your Mac

directly into XP. To determine if you've imported your Boot Camp

machine to a separate Fusion machine check your Virtual Machine library

to see if you have more than one machine. If not, it's a safe bet you

only have one copy of XP on your machine.+

I don't know how to check the library. I right clicked on the Fusion app file and had it show package contents. There's a libdir but it was empty.

No, not without importing your machine into a Fusion virtual machine. Otherwise you will lose your only machine.

How do I import it into Fusion? Once I do that is it safe to assume I can delete the Boot Camp partition? Would that be done using the disk utility?

[ian83]

Anxiously awaiting to hear more from 'rcardona2k' on 'desertratr's' post on whether or not one could scrap Boot Camp once you have 'imported' the Boot Camp Partition into VM and end up with a file named: Boot Camp Partition.vwwarevm in a Folder named: <%2Fdev%2Fdisk0>. There is also second folder named: <%2Fdev%2Fdisk1> which is empty.

[rcardona2k]

Anxiously awaiting to hear more from 'rcardona2k' on 'desertratr's' post on whether or not one could scrap Boot Camp once you have 'imported' the Boot Camp Partition into VM and end up with a file named: Boot Camp Partition.vwwarevm in a Folder named: <%2Fdev%2Fdisk0>. There is also second folder named: <%2Fdev%2Fdisk1> which is empty.

An imported Boot Camp partition should be in a folder in Documents > Virtual Machines. The Virtual Machine library item is under the Window menu. When you select a virtual machine and ctrl-click on the entry (or right-click on a mouse), a context menu appears with the option "Show in Finder". The virtual machine will appear in the Finder. If the folder that opens is under /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/%2Fdev%2Fdisk that is NOT an imported machine. That is the real Boot Camp VM. If the folder that opens is in Documents > Virtual Machines then you're OK to delete a Boot Camp partition.

Deleting a Boot Camp partition is done with the Boot Camp Assistant in Applications > Utilities and not with Apple Disk Utility.

I no longer have a Boot Camp partition on my machine but to import it, in the Virtual Machine library, you would click on the Boot Camp partition and click Import, then a Save As dialog would prompt you to save it Documents. The exact steps are in the online help guide under the Help menu.

[ian83]

Many thanks for the advice - tried it but made the mistake of trying to rename the file before opening it for the first time and I have started all over agin but it looks like I won;t have a problem this time.  Again, many thanks for your assistance.

Best regards

Ian