My motherboard on my five year old HP Media Center PC developed thermal problems not worth my time and resources to diagnose and fix, so I finally decided to join Mac nation and picked up an iMac.
There are a few Windows XP exclusive applications that I would still like to run from time to time (portable music player software, Interactual DVD player for the occasional DVD review of a title with ROM content that is not Mac-friendly, etc.), and I am trying to figure out the best way to go as far as using Boot Camp and/or Parallels. I do not need or want to deal with Vista, so all I really want is to be able to run legacy XP stuff from time to time. My SATA hard drive from my PC is intact, and I have a USB 2.0 dock for it so I can retrieve whatever files I need.
Essentially, I am wondering what would be the cheapest way to go. Would Parallels work with my existing XP Media Center drive without having to purchase another copy of Windows XP to install? If the answer is no (which I suspect it is), then I will probably just go with buying a copy of XP to install on a partition and using Boot Camp. I would be using the XP stuff so infrequently that I would not mind the inconvenience of rebooting, so I might not go with adding Parallels in that case.
If this topic has been covered extensively in another thread, then just point me in that direction. Otherwise, any helpful or random thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks!
There are a few Windows XP exclusive applications that I would still like to run from time to time (portable music player software, Interactual DVD player for the occasional DVD review of a title with ROM content that is not Mac-friendly, etc.), and I am trying to figure out the best way to go as far as using Boot Camp and/or Parallels. I do not need or want to deal with Vista, so all I really want is to be able to run legacy XP stuff from time to time. My SATA hard drive from my PC is intact, and I have a USB 2.0 dock for it so I can retrieve whatever files I need.
Essentially, I am wondering what would be the cheapest way to go. Would Parallels work with my existing XP Media Center drive without having to purchase another copy of Windows XP to install? If the answer is no (which I suspect it is), then I will probably just go with buying a copy of XP to install on a partition and using Boot Camp. I would be using the XP stuff so infrequently that I would not mind the inconvenience of rebooting, so I might not go with adding Parallels in that case.
If this topic has been covered extensively in another thread, then just point me in that direction. Otherwise, any helpful or random thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks!