Hi - I plan to migrate my TMG project to FH6. My FH6 environment will be Windows 8.1 as a VM under Parallels-10 running in OSX Yosemite.
Any suggestions on how to make this as painless as possible (I've read the TMG migration Q&A entries) ?
Also I want to be able to run FH6 such that all important FH6 files are known in the OS X world. I routinely delete the Windows VM and reinstall everything from scratch so I need a way to capture anything important (Windows registry entries and other hidden files) in the Mac environment. Any suggestions?
TIA and looking forward to getting to grips with FH6 - looks good.
Cheers ... John.
* FH6 running under Parallels / OS X
-
Valkrider
- Megastar
- Posts: 1534
- Joined: 04 Jun 2012 19:03
- Family Historian: V7
- Location: Lincolnshire
- Contact:
Re: FH6 running under Parallels / OS X
John
Given your scenario it may be worth considering Crossover or Wine rather than a virtual machine as that way each 'bottle' is self contained and there would be no reason to delete a bottle due to a problem with another windows app like there may be with a virtual machine. It also means that you can use Finder to browse all your FH files.
Given your scenario it may be worth considering Crossover or Wine rather than a virtual machine as that way each 'bottle' is self contained and there would be no reason to delete a bottle due to a problem with another windows app like there may be with a virtual machine. It also means that you can use Finder to browse all your FH files.
-
tatewise
- Megastar
- Posts: 27087
- Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
- Family Historian: V7
- Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
- Contact:
Re: FH6 running under Parallels / OS X
Mac users will more advice about options, but to capture & restore Registry settings, etc, use the Backup and Restore Family Historian Settings Plugin, then everything you need is in your Project folder.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
Re: FH6 running under Parallels / OS X
John,
The simplest way to get OS X and a Parallels Virtual Machine to share data nicely is to set up Parallels to run the VM in 'Coherence Mode'. This means that you can store/access all of your FH Project Data in the your Mac Documents Folder rather than in the Windows My Documents folder (which is actually within the Virtual Machine).
Not sure why you would want to delete and reinstall the Windows VHD on a regular basis, particularly as each re-iinstall of Windows 8.1 will require you to engage in a lengthy call to Microsoft's automated registration line to re-activate Windows (i.e each install of a new Virtual Machine is recognised by Windows as an attempt to install a registered version of Windows on a 'new' Computer and it will not activate without going through the telephone re-activation process. - It's an anti-piracy thing). You would then need to reapply all Microsoft updates issued since the release of Windows 8.1
A simpler approach to restoring a 'clean Windows environment' would be either to take a Snapshot of the System, using Parallels, prior to the installation of any third party software, which you could then roll-back to if/when you want start with a clean system or, alternatively, simply copy your 'clean Windows VHD installation' to an external Drive and use that to over-write your working system whenever you want to start afresh. Both of these methods avoid the need to re-activate Windows as you are using the same Virtual System. This also significantly reduces your downtime. If you take either of these approaches you can also update your clean image with any 'new' Microsoft updates immediately after 'roll back' and then create a new Snapshot/external copy of the VHD before re-installing third party software, again reducing future downtime.
As Mike Tate has already advised, for ease use his Backup and Restore Plugin to save/restore all of your Family Historian settings, as in Coherence Mode, these can also be saved/restored to/from a defined OS X Folder. I tend to store my saved settings in the in Documents\Family Historian Projects\Backup
Hope that helps.
Mervyn
The simplest way to get OS X and a Parallels Virtual Machine to share data nicely is to set up Parallels to run the VM in 'Coherence Mode'. This means that you can store/access all of your FH Project Data in the your Mac Documents Folder rather than in the Windows My Documents folder (which is actually within the Virtual Machine).
Not sure why you would want to delete and reinstall the Windows VHD on a regular basis, particularly as each re-iinstall of Windows 8.1 will require you to engage in a lengthy call to Microsoft's automated registration line to re-activate Windows (i.e each install of a new Virtual Machine is recognised by Windows as an attempt to install a registered version of Windows on a 'new' Computer and it will not activate without going through the telephone re-activation process. - It's an anti-piracy thing). You would then need to reapply all Microsoft updates issued since the release of Windows 8.1
A simpler approach to restoring a 'clean Windows environment' would be either to take a Snapshot of the System, using Parallels, prior to the installation of any third party software, which you could then roll-back to if/when you want start with a clean system or, alternatively, simply copy your 'clean Windows VHD installation' to an external Drive and use that to over-write your working system whenever you want to start afresh. Both of these methods avoid the need to re-activate Windows as you are using the same Virtual System. This also significantly reduces your downtime. If you take either of these approaches you can also update your clean image with any 'new' Microsoft updates immediately after 'roll back' and then create a new Snapshot/external copy of the VHD before re-installing third party software, again reducing future downtime.
As Mike Tate has already advised, for ease use his Backup and Restore Plugin to save/restore all of your Family Historian settings, as in Coherence Mode, these can also be saved/restored to/from a defined OS X Folder. I tend to store my saved settings in the in Documents\Family Historian Projects\Backup
Hope that helps.
Mervyn
Re: FH6 running under Parallels / OS X
Hi Mike and Mervyn,
many thanks for your suggestions. I will use coherence mode and the backup plugin so all FH6 data is kept in the OS X filespace. I had hoped that was possible - it's similar to the approach I've been using with TMG.
Mervyn - thanks for your sensible suggestion to keep a copy of a clean Windows VM and reload that - agreed that will obviate the sometimes painful Windows reinstallation and activation process.
Cheers ... John
many thanks for your suggestions. I will use coherence mode and the backup plugin so all FH6 data is kept in the OS X filespace. I had hoped that was possible - it's similar to the approach I've been using with TMG.
Mervyn - thanks for your sensible suggestion to keep a copy of a clean Windows VM and reload that - agreed that will obviate the sometimes painful Windows reinstallation and activation process.
Cheers ... John