# PC XP to Mac Lion transfer help



## redhot (Oct 23, 2009)

I currently have an 8 year old HP XP laptop, it still runs good, except for all the scans and upgrades and bs I have with it. Any ways, I just purchased a brand new IMac, 21", with the i3 dual-core chip. I want to install Windows 7 on it and transfer all my stuff off of the HP. I got the Parallels disk with the IMac. What is the proper procedure to do this. The IMac came with Snow Leopard and I get a free upgrade to Lion. Install Lion first, then Parallels (using a usb cable) then Windows 7, then transfer XP stuff to it? Any help or links would be appreciated. Thanks


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Sounds as good plan. 
For quick transfer data/documents (not programs, what would require to install again ) use 100 Mb or 1 Gb network, not WiFi.


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## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

redhot said:


> Install Lion first, then Parallels (using a usb cable) then Windows 7, then transfer XP stuff to it?


That plan should work fine. Note that you cannot copy applications from XP to Win7, they will need to be reinstalled.

Edit: I've never tried transferring via USB cable, not sure how the iMac would see the XP system.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Just note you need Parallels 6.0, which came out just before Lion. If you install 5.0 you will have to upgrade before upgrading to Lion.


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## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

You can also create a virtual copy of your XP system to keep on your Mac. Fusion does this I assume Parallels can too.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

klang said:


> You can also create a virtual copy of your XP system to keep on your Mac. Fusion does this I assume Parallels can too.


I was going to post/ask the same thing. I never used it because I didn't want to... but I knew Fusion would image an existing PC and create a virtual machine based on that for you.

In my case (and it sounds maybe like the thread starter too) I wanted to save my old data but not necessarily my whole system... so I wanted a fresh install anyway and never tried that feature.


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## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

Stewart Vernon said:


> I was going to post/ask the same thing. I never used it because I didn't want to... but I knew Fusion would image an existing PC and create a virtual machine based on that for you.
> 
> In my case (and it sounds maybe like the thread starter too) I wanted to save my old data but not necessarily my whole system... so I wanted a fresh install anyway and never tried that feature.


I keep the VM's from both mine and my wives previous Vista systems on my iMac 'just in case'. We copied everything we thought we would need to our Imacs and/or Win7 VM's. Just a little insurance policy as I re-purposed the original Windows machines for other things.

Starting one of the copied images the first time is a little exciting until all the drivers get sorted out.


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## redhot (Oct 23, 2009)

I have a geek friend that is going to do this for me soon. I do have Parallels 6.0. Thanks for the replies......


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