How to boot USB devices?

V

viola

Hunter
I find myself frequently building and testing USB boot devices. Usually they are DOS booting USB flash drives.
Parallels seems to make this task very difficult. Can someone please share step by step instructions on how to make a Parallels guest machine that always boots USB flash drives in a straightforward fashion?
 
Connect the USB flash drive to a new PC. Turn on the PC and press the key that opens the boot-device selection menu for the computer, such as the Esc/F10/F12 keys. Select the option that boots the PC from the USB flash drive. Windows Setup starts.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
To boot USB devices :
1. Insert the USB flash drive. It's recommended that you remove all other drives, memory cards, printers, scanners etc.
2. Reboot the computer
3. Press any key to boot from an external media, if you are prompted to do so
 
Reminder: the question is about how to configure a Parallels VM to boot from USB device, not how to boot a full PC.
 
This depends on whether you are trying to boot UEFI or conventional bootable image. I can't remember all the details. But likely this information can help you a bit.
- Plug the device to Mac.
- Go to VM Configuration -> Hardware -> Boot Order -> Advanced.
-- If you are using Conventional BIOS bootable USB, Type a line in "Boot flags" (without quotes)
"vm.bios.efi=0"
- Check the "External device" option in Boot Order list and choose your USB in "External boot device" combo.

This should make your VM boot from the USB.
Also you can experiment with "Select boot device on startup" option
 
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