How can I access the filesystem without booting the VM?

gginnj

Junior Member
I got hit with a virus that really did me in on my Windows VM. If I try to boot into safe mode,
it never makes it, it just hangs. Usually, at this point, I'd pull the drive, put in a good backup
drive, and install it as d:, and run my antivirus on it from there...but I can't do that on a VM.

So...I only have a few directories/files that I need from that VM.

I was able to restore this VM from time machine (30 days old), so I restored my VM to it's
existance 30 days ago, I still have the infected VM (under a different name).

Anyway...Is there a way to explore the VM and copy off files without having to boot it? Similar
to Acronis disk suite where I could mount a backup file, and explore pull files? Whether I access
the VM's filesystem from MAC/OS or a windows VM that has access to the to VM file itself
doesn't matter.

Thanks
GG
 
Right-click the VM, select "Open With" -> Parallels Mounter.

The VM HDD will get mounted in Finder and you can browse/copy its contents
 
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