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Parallels 7 and Windows 7 Dell Disc, possible?
Just a quick question. I doubt this would be possible, but does anyone know whether I could use my Dell Windows 7 Ultimate Disc to install Windows 7 on my iMac running Parallels 7?
Download the Parallels demo/trial and try. Normally the manufacturer restore media are tied to the specific machine.
Installed the trial and installed Windows 7 no dramas.
My Virtualbox Windows install is from a Dell Mini 9.
Don’t know why a Dell Mini 9 came with a Windows CD (netbook didn’t have a optical drive).
Anyway, try Virtualbox; it’s free.
Sometimes you can do it. I can install XP from a Dell install disc, but am unable to use my Asus eeePC disc to install windows starter.
If you're installing from an OEM disc you're breaking the EULA and have no valid license.
Breaking the licence or not you should be able to do it with no issues.
It will not however activate properly due to the key being tied to a Dell machine.
I would imagine the Dell Windows install would be trying to install a bunch of drivers for hardware that didn't exist, virtual or not, so it's possible there could be some issues there, all depends on how 'custom' the install disk is.
There's no blanket rule for how well this kind of thing will work out. It all depends on what the OEM did to create their restore media.
Some manufacturers basically just provide a vanilla Windows install disc and then supplementary discs to install drivers and other utils. If this is what you've got then just using the Windows install disc and not the other stuff should work fine.
In other cases, the manufacturer creates a custom install disc (or multiple disc set) that installs a pre-configured Windows environment with all drivers and utils in place. It's much less likely that this would work in a VM environment as that environment won't match the manufacturer's hardware. At best, you'll end up with an install that has incorrect drivers installed and fails activation because it doesn't have the "correct" hardware. At worst, it just won't install at all.
Secondary to this is that Gehenna is absolutely correct - an OEM license for Windows is directly tied to the hardware. The license isn't transferable. How much you care about this is entirely your choice.
David
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