Where are the Windows files located on the Mac hard drive?

W

WilDersh

Junior Member
I'm trying to find my windows files to backup with my Mac backups. I can't find the path for the files stored for Vista in Parallels.

I can't back up my windows files while in Vista as my external hard drive is no picked up as a device through Parallels. It is a firewire drive. If I put it on USB, I can access it, but not while using the firewire connection.

If I can just locate where the files are located, then I can back up my Mac files including the windows files.

Thanks.

Wil
 
You can set where the hdd file is set during creation. But the default is in the Library/Parallels folder.

For me, it's under /Users/Ray/Library/Parallels


I'm not running bootcamp so I don't know about it.
 
I thought that, too, but they changed the default location in a recent release, and it's now in ~/Documents/Parallels/. Older installations will still have it in ~/Library/Parallels/

FWIW, I don't save any of my own documents in the VM hard drive, I use a shared folder on my Mac. That way they get backed up when my Mac's home directory is backed up, and if I ever have to recreate my VM hard drive I only lose the guest OS and apps, but my own documents are secure in OS X.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Alan. I thought about that and use the shared files for many shared files, where I use them in both Mac and windows. But, I allocated too much space on for my Parallels and I don't want to lose everything I've set up in windows.

The last time I tried to dynamically change the Parallels disk storage, I seemed to have lost everything I had done and had to do it over again.
 
My applications are stored in ~/Documents/Parallels/~, however I can't find my documents stored on the windows side.
 
If you are trying to see all the files of your "C" drive, then you should see a drive icon on your desktop, or in a terminal window you can type the mount command to see something like:

$mount
..
vfstool on /private/tmp/23913/C


So mine will be on that directory.
 
Thanks for the info.

I don't have a drive icon on my Mac desktop. Since I am just switching over to Mac, I also don't know about getting a terminal window on the Mac.

Any additional help would be appreciated.

Wil
 
I'm still looking for my data files on the windows vm. I found the applications, thanks to the above information.

Has anyone found their data files?

Wil
 
WilDersh said:
I'm still looking for my data files on the windows vm. I found the applications, thanks to the above information.

Has anyone found their data files?

Wil
Click to expand...

I wonder if you could clarify what you are doing. Do you use Boot camp? When you go looking for your data files in Windows are you using Windows Explorer or are you using Mac Finder?

Here is what you can reasonably expect. Windows in parallels is not different from Windows running natively, so your data files will be stored in the same place: My Documents in Windows.

The Mac operating system has no native way to see those files except via sharing, and only when Windows is running. Parallels has provided an application that allows exploring the Windows virtual hard drive but that runs at the application level and is the only Mac application that can explore the VM disks.

Assuming you are not using Boot Camp you can back up your Windows data and the entire Windows virtual machine by simply backing up your Parallels virtual machine directory. You need to shut down Parallels entirely to do this.
 
dkp said:
I wonder if you could clarify what you are doing. Do you use Boot camp? When you go looking for your data files in Windows are you using Windows Explorer or are you using Mac Finder?

Here is what you can reasonably expect. Windows in parallels is not different from Windows running natively, so your data files will be stored in the same place: My Documents in Windows.

The Mac operating system has no native way to see those files except via sharing, and only when Windows is running. Parallels has provided an application that allows exploring the Windows virtual hard drive but that runs at the application level and is the only Mac application that can explore the VM disks.

Assuming you are not using Boot Camp you can back up your Windows data and the entire Windows virtual machine by simply backing up your Parallels virtual machine directory. You need to shut down Parallels entirely to do this.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information.

I am using Parallels and don't know anything about Boot camp. I just set up Parallels on my iMac last month. I am running Vista on windows and have no problems finding my data files.

My problem is trying to backup the data files stored in windows. I can't find them using Finder.

I have an external firewire drive which is only recognized on the Mac. I can use Parallels sharing feature to use that drive while using windows, but when I run my backup program (Western Digital supplied), I can't locate the data files to back them up; again, the data files I have on windows.

I am new to using the Mac and Parallels, so I also don't know how to backup the Parallels virtual machine directory, unless it is the one identified as winvista.hdd.

Thanks for any additional help.

Wil
 
backup

Yes, the winvista.hdd has the VM files, however I would recommend you backup the parent directory where winvista.hdd is locate (in my case is ~Documents/Parallels/Microsoft Windows Vista/

However I would also recommend you shutdown Vista before doing the backup because if you backup while vista is suspended or asleep you will be saving the memory snapshot of the running vista and will consume lots of your disk space.

regards,
-Luis
 
My Windows has completely locked up. I have an error message in the task bar that I can't close. I can't close Windows XP from the start menu and turning off the computer doesn't help.

Does the warm boot work in parallels? I can't get it to work.

My message is "Card reader lookup program error"

Can anyone help????
 
Hi, i just wanted to share what i just found out.
I also successfully used the mountpoint in /Users/myuser/Library/Parallels
but since a recent update it seems to have moved to /Volumes
for example the C Drive of my Windows 11 is at /Volumes/[C] Windows 11/
my Parallels version is Version 20.4.1 (55996)

Please let me know if i should post this information elsewhere
 
On a Mac, Windows files are usually stored in the Boot Camp partition. You can find them by opening Finder and looking for a drive named "BOOTCAMP". Inside, your Windows files are in the usual Windows folders like C:\Users\YourName\Documents.

If you're using a virtual machine like Parallels or VMware, the Windows files are inside the virtual machine file, typically in your Documents or Applications folder.
 
Boot Camp creates a separate Windows partition on your Mac's hard drive.You can see it in Finder → Locations → BOOTCAMP (or a similar name).The Windows system files are stored on that partition, usually at:
 
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