Run Windows 11 VM off an external drive? Issues? Performance?

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop on a Mac with Apple silicon' started by SWANDY, Oct 30, 2023.

  1. SWANDY

    SWANDY Pro

    Messages:
    357
    I have Parallels 19 running a Windows 11 ARM VM on an M1 iMac (which I plan on upgrading to an M3 iMac with more RAM soon). The Parallels Application and the VM are both on my internal hard drive. The VM is over 115 GB. I am considering moving it to an external drive instead of it taking up room on the internal HD.
    (1) Will it run properly? Any issues?
    (2) How will putting it on an external HD (probably a USB-C SSD Drive) effect the performance (aside from having to remember to plug it in when I need to access Windows 11)?
    Thanks because this might help me decide on the size of the internal HD on the new iMac.
     
    SWANDY, Oct 30, 2023
    #1
  2. Avinash Bundhoo

    Avinash Bundhoo Staff Member

    Messages:
    704
    Hello Swandy,

    Thank you for your feedback.

    1. We can run virtual machines on external drives. But we would like to bring to your attention an important factor that can significantly enhance the performance of your virtual machine. For the best experience, we strongly recommend running the virtual machine on a Solid State Drive (SSD).

    Also, to ensure optimal performance and stability, it is imperative that the virtual machine be run on a disk formatted with the Apple File System (APFS).

    Using an ExFAT formatted disk may lead to known compatibility issues that could potentially affect the functionality of the virtual machine. Therefore, we highly recommend migrating your virtual machine to a disk formatted with APFS.

    2. Please note that Thunderbolt 3 enclosures with nVME SSD setups can offer extremely high performance, often on par with or even surpassing the internal SSDs of many systems. This is due to the high-speed data transfer capabilities of Thunderbolt 3 and the inherently fast nature of NVMe SSDs.

    This setup can provide an excellent solution for running virtual machines. It can offer near-native performance, making it a great choice for resource-intensive tasks or applications that demand high disk I/O.

    This option would address many of the potential concerns associated with running a virtual machine on an external drive.

    Thanks
     
    Avinash Bundhoo, Oct 31, 2023
    #2
  3. SWANDY

    SWANDY Pro

    Messages:
    357
    Thanks for the information. If I decide to try it out as a permanent solution (I have tried using a backup of my existing VM on an SSD drive and was impressed with how it worked) I will look into what type of SSD drive/connection I want to use.
     
    SWANDY, Oct 31, 2023
    #3

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