Converting Hard drive to .hdd

M

MurrayM

Bit poster
Prior to getting rid of my last PC I copied all the contents of C drive to a FireWire external hard drive (as a straight copy, not as a backup).

I am now wanting to set that disk up as a Parallels VM, but all the options I see is to run from a Bootcamp partition, or from a disk image.

I have tried Parallels Transporter Agent, but to create a VM either needs to be done from a running machine (which I cannot do as I don't have the PC anymore), or from an existing disk image.

How can I either get Parallels to recognise the external hard drive, or alternatively how can I convert that disk into something Parallels will recognise?
 
Only by using 3rd party cloning tools, but that won't be an easy process, as Windows doesn't like to be booted into a completely different hardware (the way to resolve this is by doing a 'Repair Install', requires a Wndows CD/DVD), and that's why something like Parallels Transporter takes care of.

Have you tried running it as a Bootcamp drive? You can migrate it to a virtual HD later, mind you that running it as bootcamp will permanently alter files on that disk, you should back it up first.

Unless you have some technical knowledge of how to do any of these, you won't be able to turn your copy into a working VM.
 
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Thanks for the response.

I will look at a way of cloning the drive. Is there a specific file format that is better than others?

With your suggestion of running it as a Bootcamp image, how do I get it recognised? It does not appear under the list of BootCap partitions when I try and create a new VM?
 
Doesn't matter what file format, use a clone tool that can be booted of a cd (or cd image), you'll than have to create a new VM manually (without the wizard), and boot this empty VM with the cd from the cloning tool. Some proficiency in choosing the adequate Parallels options is required.

To get it recognized as bootcamp partition the drive has to be connected at the time, the partition has to be FAT or NTFS.
 
I could be wrong, but I don't think you're going to be able to do what you want to do. The key is in your first line - "as a straight copy."

Windows boot disks need to be marked in a special way as boot disks, and simply copying all the files from a Windows boot disk to another disk won't make it possible to boot from the new disk.

Catemaco

MurrayM said:
Prior to getting rid of my last PC I copied all the contents of C drive to a FireWire external hard drive (as a straight copy, not as a backup).

I am now wanting to set that disk up as a Parallels VM, but all the options I see is to run from a Bootcamp partition, or from a disk image.

I have tried Parallels Transporter Agent, but to create a VM either needs to be done from a running machine (which I cannot do as I don't have the PC anymore), or from an existing disk image.

How can I either get Parallels to recognise the external hard drive, or alternatively how can I convert that disk into something Parallels will recognise?
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