Can I install another vm lodged on an external hard drive?

M

MelvinW

Bit poster
I am migrating from a PC running Windows XP to a macbook and a mac mini. I've removed the hard drive from the PC and can run it as an external hard drive connected to the macbook or the mini via a usb cable and a masscool S-ATA&IDE->USB 2.O adapter. I have one VM running Windows 7 under Parallels. But it would be handy to hook up my old hard drive as a Windows XP machine - and keep it lodged on the hard drive. There are a lot of PC programs on that drive - most of which I'll probably never need - but some of which I'm accustomed to and might most readily use if I could just switch to that hard drive. Can anyone tell me if this makes sense and suggest how I should go about it? (I have been able to run old DOS programs from thumbdrives through the Windows 7 VM. There are some things I can do under XP that I can't do under Windows 7. (For example, I find that my old version of Acrobat "is incompatible" with Windows 7 - but was compatible with XP)
If anyone has any advice about this, I'll be thankful. I want to be careful not to have two versions of Windows collide with one another.

jmwoo
 
the only way is - connect this hard drive to PC hardware, boot to Windows XP and use Parallels Transporter to create Virtual Machine from this PC. After you have done it - the "Windows XP.pvm" file would be created with the same size as your Windows XP and with all software inside.
You than can format your harddrive (make sure VM is actually running) and move this pvm file there to save up space on Mac's hard drive. it is the only way
 
The hard drive is from my old PC

This all began because my PC wouldn't start up the hard drive any more. So I removed the hard drive and connected it to the Mac Mini. It has everything on it that it did while installed in my PC. But I can't follow hour advice literally because I no longer have a separate PC. Am I to conclude that there's no way to set that hard drive going now that it's attached to the Mini? It has all the software that it had while still in the PC.

Melvin
 
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