Parallels reinstallation question

Hi,
I am currently running Parallels Desktop 11 for Mac (online upgrade purchase version) on a mid 2011 iMac.
I am about to downgrade from El Capitan back to either Yosemite or Maverick. I was happiest with Maverick, but that would probably be a step back too far at this stage, so most likely Yosemite at this stage.
My issue is not so much any problem with Parallels but the loss of software Raid support in El Capitan. (I have a broken drive and the raid will not rebuild in El Capitan because Apple software raid support has been removed) My question is this. What is the best way to reinstall Parallels once I wipe my hard drive and do a fresh reinstall of Yosemite? Can the Parallels app or virtual drive be shifted prior to the operating system change? If so what are the main files I need to backup or shift?
I really don't want to reinstall my entire windows machine from scratch.
Thanks.

 

Ok thank you very much. I did a manual backup of the pvm file to an external drive. I assume that when I reinstall Parallels I will then copy the pvm file back into the Mac HD drive it came from and 'point' the program to it. Got a bit more fact finding and backing up to do before I give it a go, but thank you for your help.
David

 

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