Parallels from an exsisting HDD

V

vijmal

Member
Hi,
I have a 80 G HDD that has my previous Windows install (my laptop screen died :( ), can I use that HDD and use parallels on my mac ? I have an external firewire casing for this
If I can't use the HDD itself is there anyway I can use it to get a parallels image ?
thanks.
 
vijmal said:
Hi,
I have a 80 G HDD that has my previous Windows install (my laptop screen died :( ), can I use that HDD and use parallels on my mac ? I have an external firewire casing for this
If I can't use the HDD itself is there anyway I can use it to get a parallels image ?
thanks.
Click to expand...

Hiya!

You can use Parallels Transporter appl. in order to transport the existing Windows partition to the .hdd virtual hard drive format. But so-called Parallels Agent should run on the Windows physical machine during this process.

Also it is possible to use a 3-rd party appl.,

Best regards,
John
 
I'd like an answer to that too.

I had an old laptop which died, but I have the 40GB hard drive, which has a full, working version of Windows XP and loads of apps and data, and I have a casing which gives it both Firewire and USB connections.

I'd like to use that external hard drive's 'pc' on my macbook pro. Happy to put the whole thing onto my hard drive - have 120 GB free.

I no longer have a windows machine, but I could get access to a mates desktop if that would help.

Can this be done?
 
a_bloke said:
I'd like an answer to that too.

I had an old laptop which died, but I have the 40GB hard drive, which has a full, working version of Windows XP and loads of apps and data, and I have a casing which gives it both Firewire and USB connections.

I'd like to use that external hard drive's 'pc' on my macbook pro. Happy to put the whole thing onto my hard drive - have 120 GB free.

I no longer have a windows machine, but I could get access to a mates desktop if that would help.

Can this be done?
Click to expand...

Hiya!

Please get access to a Windows PC, replace the hard disk in the PC computer with the internal hard disk you have and boot Windows from that hard disk. After that Install Parallels Agent appl., connect the PC to the MAC using the CAT. 5 (network) cable, start Parallels Transporter (In Mac OS X) and Agent (In Windows) and start the transportation process as described in the User Guide,

Best regards,
John
 
johnv said:
Hiya!

Please get access to a Windows PC, replace the hard disk in the PC computer with the internal hard disk you have and boot Windows from that hard disk. After that Install Parallels Agent appl., connect the PC to the MAC using the CAT. 5 (network) cable, start Parallels Transporter (In Mac OS X) and Agent (In Windows) and start the transportation process as described in the User Guide,

Best regards,
John
Click to expand...


So without an actual windows machine that I can fiddle around with I really can't do anything can I :(
 
Same Boat

I'm in the same boat -- the HD from my old PC now lives in an external drive case rather than a PC (and it still has the Windows XP Pro OS on it). The PC tower is now in a recycling pit. Is Parallels planning some kind of update that will allow importation of information from an external HD into Mac?

I was under the impression that installing Parallels and Windows XP on my Mac would allow "drag and drop" capability between the Win XP external drive and my Mac. Kind of disappointing to find out this is not the case. Is Parallels planning to incorporate this capability some time soon?

Thanks.
-Kate
 
Well, I'm at a loss on how you think a software virtualization company is going to magically create software that can access a hard drive that is not plugged into any hardware.

There are companies out there that can extract the data and give it to you to recover but they start at around $500 for data extraction.

there are external hd enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/S..._mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-HardDrives-_-NA-_-NA
you can get that you can plug a HD into that have usb ports that aren't that expensive.

Now, you can access the hd with USB
 
At a Loss?

BenInBlack said:
Well, I'm at a loss on how you think a software virtualization company is going to magically create software that can access a hard drive that is not plugged into any hardware.

There are companies out there that can extract the data and give it to you to recover but they start at around $500 for data extraction.

there are external hd enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/S..._mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-HardDrives-_-NA-_-NA
you can get that you can plug a HD into that have usb ports that aren't that expensive.

Now, you can access the hd with USB
Click to expand...

Whoa, I think we lost track of the original question. Let me reiterate:
(1) I have a hard drive that was originally installed in a PC tower, formatted with Windows XP Pro.
(2) When the PC tower crashed (having nothing to do with the hard drive), I moved that hard drive from the tower to an external HD enclosure which has both USB and Firewire ports.
(3) I bought a new iMac and installed Parallels, then Windows XP Pro within Parallels, on the iMac. Everything went smoothly with both installations and the VM works great.
(4) The iMac reads the external HD disk just fine (with either a Firewire or a USB cable). It's able to retrieve and read files from this external disk.
(5) I read in the Parallels book that Parallels doesn't work with Firewire, so I plugged the external HD to my iMac via USB port.
(6) Parallels cannot "see" the external HD disk, even if I try mapping it from within Windows XP Pro, and even if I plug it in while having the VM (Parallels/Windows XP Pro) open.
(7) The external HD disk does not show up on the list of USB peripherals within Parallels (it's plugged into the USB ports of both the external HD and the iMac).

I'm gathering from people's replies that it is not possible to use the Parallels Transporter application to move the information from the external HD to Parallels/Windows on the iMac unless the original HD is housed in a computer tower. Is this correct? If so, why doesn't Parallels "see" this drive as just another drive, such as a thumb drive?

If it's not possible to use the Parallels Transporter application to transfer the information from the external drive to iMac, can someone suggest a work-around for transferring the information from the external drive into the Parallels/Windows section of my iMac; or, alternately, can someone suggest a way to get the external drive to show up as another drive in Parallels/Windows? Why doesn't Parallels read this drive as any other external drive?

This is all very new to me, so thank you in advance for your patience and for any help you can give me.
 
Ok, I see,

looks like you need to find a friend with a Notebook with the following
1. Windows XP OS
2. a USB port
3. a EitherNet Network Port

Have him bring it over and you hook your external to his laptop, run cat5 network cable between laptop and Mac, then install transporter software on laptop and this should get you closer
 
Thanks, Ben. I have access to a laptop running Windows XP Pro, so I'll try your solution tonight or tomorrow night. One question -- should I run the network cable DIRECTLY from the laptop to the iMac, or use my router as a go-between?

P.S. Last night I discovered "shared folders" at the bottom right-hand side of the Parallels window, so I plugged the external HD into one of the iMac's USB ports and added the external HD as a "shared folder." Dunno if this will solve the transport problem yet because my mouse is not responding when it's in the Parallels/Windows window. I've got a separate thread going in this forum to troubleshoot that issue as well.

Stay tuned... and thanks again.
-Kate
 
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