User`s guide

Setting Up a Virtual Machine 71
Using Boot Camp Partition in Virtual
Machine
If you have a Boot Camp partition, you can create a virtual machine that will use Boot Camp
partition as its hard disk or import Windows from this Boot Camp partition to a new virtual
machine or use this partition as a data disk in virtual machines.
Creating a Boot Camp Virtual Machine
To create a new virtual machine for using the Boot Camp Windows partition, do the following:
Boot into Mac OS X.
1 Start Parallels Desktop and launch New Virtual Machine Assistant by clicking New in the
File menu.
2 In the Create New Virtual Machine window, choose Boot Camp partition from the Install from
menu, click Continue and follow the instructions.
Note: If your Boot Camp is divided into several partitions, only the bootable partition will
be added to the virtual machine configuration. If you want to add the other partitions, you
should add them as separate virtual hard disks (p. 215) in the Virtual Machine
Configuratio
n.
3 Your Boot Camp virtual machine will be accessible through the Parallels Virtual Machine list
(p. 33) that allows you to easily manage your v
irtual machines. When you boot into Boot
Camp Windows through Parallels Desktop for the first time, Parallels Desktop will install
Parallels Tools (p. 74, p. 16).
After that, y
ou will be able to boot into your Boot Camp partition from Parallels virtual machine
or use it as usual by booting into the Windows partition.
Note: This version of Parallels Desktop allows you to suspend your Boot Camp virtual
machines. If a Boot Camp virtual machine is suspended, it is highly recommended that you do
not use the Boot Camp partition. Otherwise when you resume the virtual machine, it will store
all the changes you made to the Boot Camp partition when the virtual machine was suspended.
Limitations
There is a number of limitations for a Parallels virtual machine that uses the Boot Camp
Windows partition either as a bootable volume or as a data disk:
 it cannot be paused
 it cannot have snapshots and run in Safe Mode (p. 128)
 it cannot be c
ompressed
Note: There are no limitations on types of users who can access the Boot Camp Windows
partition from a virtual machine. You can log into Windows even if you don't have administrator
rights.