Can Parallels run an existing Win7 install on a second SSD?

[Parallels User]

I dual boot OSX and Win7 from separate SSDs. SSD#1 has OS X installed; SSD#2 has Win7 installed. I prefer OS X and dislike booting into Windows, but sometimes have to.

I know Parallels will allow me to run Win7 programs from OS X, but it first seems to require the creation of a new partition and a new install of Win7 and associated programs onto that new partition. Is this correct? Or can Parallels use my existing Win7 install (and programs) that already exist on SSD#2?

I'd be thrilled if, while I'm running OS X from SSD#1, I could use Parallels to run small Windows programs from SSD#2 without rebooting or creating two separate Windows partitions that I had to juggle between. I couldn't find a clear answer if this was possible.

Thank you in advance for any help!

- Michael

 

[lotw]

Parallels has no direct access to hard drives so the answer to that is no. You can only create a partition (file(s) in Parallels for the HD image. You can however make it use the full amount always so that the file doesn't grow and shrink which helps with speed of accessing files.

I know booting into Boot Camp on a Mac takes forever, on my Mac Pro (Desktop) it takes about 1-2 minutes before it even starts booting Windows up. For that reason I rarely leave OSX, mainly just use Parallels unless a program has issues (like high end games).

 

[Parallels User]

Thank you! The clarification really helps and is much appreciated

 

[Parallels User]

Parallels has no direct access to hard drives so the answer to that is no. You can only create a partition (file(s) in Parallels for the HD image. You can however make it use the full amount always so that the file doesn't grow and shrink which helps with speed of accessing files.

This is incorrect, Parallels has been able to use Bootcamp partitions for a long time, if it boots into Bootcamp Parallels can use it.