Transfering VM using USB Flash Drive to another computer

B

Bb9too

Junior Member
I copied my Windows XP VM along with my Parallels application to a USB 2G Flask Drive and then plugged it into another computer also running Windows XP. I copied all to my desktop, downloaded the Parallels app. and then opened the VM. When I tried to power it up I got this message.

VM configuration seems to be inconsistent. The following problem is found:
VM Hard Drive 1 image file \C:\Documents and Settings\USER\My documents\Parallels\vm001.hdd cannot be found.

Is the problem at the origin or the destination? Thanks.
 
Bb9too said:
I copied my Windows XP VM along with my Parallels application to a USB 2G Flask Drive and then plugged it into another computer also running Windows XP. I copied all to my desktop, downloaded the Parallels app. and then opened the VM. When I tried to power it up I got this message.

VM configuration seems to be inconsistent. The following problem is found:
VM Hard Drive 1 image file \C:\Documents and Settings\USER\My documents\Parallels\vm001.hdd cannot be found.

Is the problem at the origin or the destination? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Those 'Flask Drives' will get you every time, especially when they're full of the good stuff. :-)

Did you install Parallels on the new machine? That's necessary. You can't just copy the files since drivers need to be installed, too.

Once Parallels is installed, you should be able to replicate the .hdd and .pvs files across machines. You'll probably need to modify the .pvs file on the target machine to point to the new location of the .hdd file.

I'm not sure that I've answered your question. Please provide more detail if I haven't.
 
I appreciate your reponse. My Flash Drive is empty, however it is only 2G and I think that may be my problem. I have since purchased a 300G external HD.

I did install Parallel on the new machine. As for replicating the .hdd and .pvs files across machines and modifying the .pvs file on the target machine to point to the new location of the .hdd file. Can you give me some idea as to how to do that? Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Bb9too said:
I appreciate your reponse. My Flash Drive is empty, however it is only 2G and I think that may be my problem. I have since purchased a 300G external HD.

I did install Parallel on the new machine. As for replicating the .hdd and .pvs files across machines and modifying the .pvs file on the target machine to point to the new location of the .hdd file. Can you give me some idea as to how to do that? Thanks!
Click to expand...
The 300 GB external should do the trick for getting the .hdd file copied over. They're often many GB in size. The .pvs file is tiny, so that should be no trouble.

It seems that all you'll have to do is start Parallels, select File -> Open from the menu, navigate to your .pvs file, click the Hard Disk entry and set the Image File entry to the location of your .hdd on the new machine.

Alternatively, you can just copy the .hdd file to the new machine and create a new VM (File -> New), choosing to use an existing virtual disk when prompted and navigate to the location of the .hdd. In this case, Parallels will create the .pvs file for you, but you'll have to optimize your memory & device settings.
 
After I figure out how the External Drive works, I will give that a try. Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me.
 
Bb9too said:
After I figure out how the External Drive works, I will give that a try. Thank you for taking the time to explain it to me.
Click to expand...
No problem. Just give a shout if you get stuck. Ideally, your external drive should be the simplest part of the puzzle. They almost never require special drivers. You just connect 'em up and they appear as new available drives.
 
mmischke-

Sounds like you are familiar with external hds. I bought a Maxtor One Touch 300GB, installed the software and went to the folder where my VM resides and then hit select. I unplugged the Maxtor and plugged it back into a new computer, but couldn't find the file. Have you had any experience with doing this?
 
I've never had to install any software to get an external HD working with any OS. You just plug 'em in and they become visible as new available drives.

Did you copy the .hdd file from the old computer to the external drive? You just mentioned that you selected it. After copying it, look on the external drive to be sure the file is there.

Also, you may need to reformat the external drive as NTFS. It might come formatted as FAT32, which doesn't support files larger than 4 GB (many .hdd files exceed 4 GB). In XP, to format a drive, just right click on it and Format... will be an option. Select NTFS as the file system and accept all the other default values.
 
I haven't been to my office yet to work on this, but as soon as I do I will make sure I have copied the .hdd file from the old to the new as well as reformat the FAT32 to NTFS. Thanks for taking the time to help me out on this. I really appreciate it.
 
Happy to help. Just make sure that you make copies of anything that might reside on the external drive that you care about. Reformatting means that all data will be wiped out...
 
Okay, does that mean that the copies of the files will reside on the external hd along with the original files and that I can select the copies to reformat without affecting the originals?
 
I'm not sure I'm fully understanding your question. Let's back up a little, and please forgive me if what I'm asking sounds obvious. Are you familiar with file systems, in general (i.e. drives, folders, files, paths, etc.)? I may be misinterpreting your post, but it sounds as if you're having difficulty seeing your external drive and navigating its contents on your various machines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top