Question - Can I use and external hard drive as the hard drive to install windows 7 on parallels ?

Hi,

My 2015 MacBook Pro is running out of HD (Hard drive) space. I want to install windows 7 and I have a brand new 500 GB External Hard Drive. In parallels 10 would I be able to select this external hard drive as the hard drive for the windows 7 virtual machine. Would it be possible to do this and have a successful installation? Would there be any problem as the installation would have to be done with an usb external hard drive plugged in ?
Thank you in advance,

Antonio

 

Hi Antonio,
Yes, it is possible to run a Windows Virtual Machine from an external Hard drive. To do that, first create your Windows virtual machine in your Mac by following the steps as suggested in this link: http://kb.parallels.com/4729
Once you have created the Virtual Machine then locate your Windows7.pvm file in your Mac.
By default it will be storred on your Mac-->Documents-->Parallels-->Windows7.pvm
Copy that .pvm file and move it to your External Hard disk. After the pvm file is moved to the hard disk all you need to do is just double click on that pvm file in your External hard Disk and your Windows Virtual Machine will open up.
You can now remove the pvm file from the Mac and continue to use it from the External drive.

Please note that the performance of the virtual machine may vary based on this order below (in decreasing order) :

• Flash Drive on Thunderbolt
• Flash Drive on USB 3.0
• Flash Drive on USB 2.0
• Rotational Drive on Thunderbolt
• Rotational Drive on USB 3.0
• Rotational Drive on USB 2.0

 

Thanks you so much. Thanks again for that incredibly fast reply !!!!

 

You're very welcome! Feel free to reach out any time, we are always here to help!

 

Hi,
Sorry to bother you again. I have a windows 7 home basic product key but don't have the actual ISO image file to install windows. I tried using the microsoft software recovery website but it keeps giving me an error. Im sure the key is valid though. Would it be possible for your to maybe link me a download of the 32 bit or 64 bit of Windows 7 Home Basic, it would be greatly appreciated if possible.

Thank you in advance,
Antonio

 

Hello Antonio,
Here is a link that I found in one of the Microsoft posts. Please check it out once and see if it helps in downloading Windows 7 home basic.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...o/39eac399-3a12-46ed-91f4-93a300126e43?auth=1

 

Hi,

The links are all old it didn't work for me. Do you know any other way maybe a ISO file which you can link me to ?

 

Hi Antonio,
Plz give us some time so that we can search for some valid link to download Windows 7 home basic for you.

 

Hello Antonio,
We have checked for the links from our side and looks like there are no genuine links from Parallels or Microsoft's side for the same. In this case you'll have to contact Microsoft to get a genuine link to download Windows 7 Home basic or may be you will have to try out some third party links from Google.

 

I am just about to install Windows in external SSD drive using Parallels 10 and the latest iMac. I have the option to keep the SSD as HFS+J format or reformat it to be ExFAT. The SSD manual says ExFAT for running Windows? So can Parallels and Windows 7 be installed on ExFAT formatted SSD or should I keep it as HFS+J and let Parallels format the partition?

 

Hello MikaS1,
You'll have to install Parallels Desktop application on your Mac first and then you can install your Virtual Machine on both ExFAT & HFS+J format of your SSD Drive.
However here is something that you might want to consider. In case if you are having your SSD formatted to HFS+J format then you can use it only on your Mac side and you will not be able to use it from your Windows virtual machine but if you have it formatted to ExFAT then you can use your SSD from both of your operating systems (Mac & Windows). Please let me know if you have any more queries.

 

Hi there,

Sorry for reviving old thread but i just want to clear something up. I've currently installed Windows 7 on my mac through Parallels 11.

Im looking to transfer my Windows OS to an external hardisk which is NTFS formatted. I've got a NTFS read and write software so shouldnt be any problem.
My question are, do i only transfer my .pvm file in my User>Document>Parallels folder?
what about the rest of the files such as User>Application(Parallels) ? This one has all the windows link in it.
Should i do anything else besides copy and paste my .pvm file into external?
All current links will automatically regenerate?

Thanks!

 

Hi @Keith2, you will have to change the format of the external hard drive to ExFAT format and then move the .pvm file to the drive. Once it is copied move the file to your desired location on the new Mac. Refer to this article.

 

Hi,

Sorry for reviving old thread but I have a copied a pvm file to an external drive. I have used twice the copied file on parallels with no problems, but it no longer works. The following error messages shows:

"No operating system installed in this virtual machine. Insert an operating system installation CD into the optical drive of your Mac and restart the virtual machine".

Thanks in advance

 

Hi,
Thanks for your reply but t if I install a new windows, how will I recover the information that I had before?
And if there was no file erase between the two previous uses, shouldn't it be another solutions? Installing a new windows, will just create a new pvm file, which I have no interested on.

 

@Vanessa2 you can use this KB in order to get the information from the previous VM. Also you can find more details here

 

Hi, Will this work if i install it to a hard drive I am partitioning in different formats as followed- (I want to run Parallels/Windows/Esri ArcGIS and R from an external hard drive for use on a mac book air that does not have a lot of storage space). From some of your articles, It sounded like it needed to be in one of the fat formats, but there is also a parallels blog post that specifies using journaled mac format. I partitioned the drive and have half set to mac journaled for use w time machine, and the other half set to fat32/ms-dos. Is ex-fat better for the current release? Is it better to assign the location as external on download via customizing settings, or to move it later? Can doing the latter create possible issues w licensing/installation/use or are the methods equal? Thanks!

 

Good Afternoon Team Parallels.

Great product. In order to save space on my MacBook Pro... I read on your site the article about installing it on an external hard drive.

I tried to do that on a Transcend JetDrive Lite... 250GB... but it was so painfully slow. Windoze 7 would not function properly.

I thought the drive was defective. I emailed Transcend... and they confirmed that their card is so slow... one must not install Windoze 7 on it.

Better try a SSD. So, I tried my Sandisk Extreme 500 external SSD drive... and it works perfectly. Lightning fast.

Now, I am wondering.... will it also work on a Sandisk USB flash drive? Are they fast enough to use for installation of Windoze 7 with Parallels 11?

It would be much handier to have it on a USB flash drive or an SD card... than on a larger external SSD drive.

If yes, which would you recommend as the minimum and the best specification of Sandisk USM or mobile products?

I am using a MacBook Pro Retina late-2013 laptop.

USB Flash Drives | SanDisk
https://www.sandisk.com/home/usb-flash

Mobile Storage | SandDisk
https://www.sandisk.com/home/mobile-device-storage

Thank you very much.

Martin

 

Hello MartinZ3,
We suggest you to contact the hardware manufacturer and know the read/write speed for the USB's the choose the one comparable with the SSD for better performance of the VM.