Run Win XP system from USB Drive ?

Hi, I am new and have not yet used Parallels. I have zero experience with running any virtual machine or emulator. I have downloaded the trial version to see if this will work for what I am trying to do. I hope that perhaps someone here can provide some guidance. I got as far as installing Parallels but have not yet setup any Windows environments.

I have a 27" iMac that is just an absolute joy to use. My interest in Parallels is due to the following. I have an older PC that is running Win XP. That PC has many of my work and professional programs and data files on it (engineering stuff). I continue to use those programs regularly. To update all the software and get Mac versions is a cost I simply cannot afford currently. Literally thousands of dollars. I would like if possible to run my old PC and the software in a VM on my iMac.

What I would like to do, if it could possibly be this simple, is to pull the hard drive out of my old PC. Stick it into an external USB hard drive enclosure. And boot/run the Win XP and programs off it - on the iMac using Parallels. Is this possible with Parallels? How do I go about setting things up to work? Where do I start?

Alternative is to keep the old PC and continue to use it. But I REALLY want to be using my iMac

 

@ClaudeP Hello! You can achieve desired functionality with the use of Parallels Transporter. Refer to these steps on how to set it up & check this for best practices and hints.

 

Thank you. I read the information about the Transporter. It appears the transporter will find and copy over documents, files, pictures, etc. That is fine, however I can do that easily using a thumb drive.
The Transporter does not appear to transfer over the whole operating windows machine, complete with all installed programs and apps.
The transporter also requires the other computer to be up and running. What I am asking/proposing is just pulling the hard drive out of the old computer and plugging that into my Mac as an external drive.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding.

 

We really understand your concern but you cannot use the hard disk directly in a virtual machine. Also, would like to inform that when you use Parallels Transporter agent it will migrate everything you have in the PC to a pvm file which includes all the applications installed in the Windows.

 

I downloaded the transporter. I tried to migrate the PC to parallels through my home router network. Everything hooks up fine and the computers see each other fine. I enter the codes give. The transfer operation starts and after about 10 minutes the operation stops, the program gives in a message that there is a disk error on the winPC and that I should run chkdsk /f. Not true, it is a fairly new disc and operating just fine. All disc tools I use on it to check it say it is fine. The problem is with parallels.

I've spent just about 4 to 7 hours now researching this program and troubleshooting it over past 3 days trying to get this to work. I am about done and will give up on it soon. This Parallels thing looked like a sweet option. However, time is money and time is expensive. The more of my time that this program wastes the less value it has. It has just about spent itself out and off of my workspace.

 

I managed to get as far as transfer complete from my other old teeny netbook (w10). Now I have this:



.... am still trying separately to get the winXp system transfer via external usb thumb drive method. waiting for the machines to do their thing ... another 3 hours of waiting

 

OK I it looks like I managed to get the winXP system to transfer. So now I have this boot menu window when I start the winXP VM. How do I eliminate that and have it just start the VM? See attached.

 

Thank you, I tried msconfig ; it pops up the settings in a window and tabs. I see this window (attached) however it does not allow me to change it. The cursor bounces away the lines in the upper window.
If there a manual way? Where do I find the BOOT.INI on the disk and what do I change in the .INI file.

 

I also tried to transfer my netbook as a second virtual machine. That one is windows 10. However that one will not boot at all. See message #7 above. And the attached. Any advice on that one?

 

@ClaudeP Hello. Please try steps suggested from this article to disable EFI boot.

 

OK, thank you. @Karthik@Parallels
I cleared the EFI boot check mark. It gets a little farther along and does not give the shell command stuff anymore. Now it stalls and stops at trying to boot ... missing operating system. What next?

 

Please provide a screenshot of the config window by accessing configure > Hardware > Hard-disk 1

 

@Karthik@Parallels OK this one?

 

Stop the VM, and try steps as suggested from this article.

 

@parallels
I read through the article. It does not make any sense to me. I do not understand what the article is intending to say to do. The link appears to describe manipulating the hd file in an existing virtual machine. That is not the situation here. Parallels fails to setup and initiate the virtual machine at the end of the Transfer PC process.

I have tried the w10 netbook transfer through the network using the Parallels onscreen prompts and codes. The transfer stops at the setup VM stage and I get the missing operating system window message. I have since tried to redo this by exporting/transferring to an "external storage" and then loading that onto the Mac using the "transfer from PC, external storage" option. When it is done transferring and tries to start the new VM, it says "updating windows" and then stops at this missing operating system window. Same result ........... yet another 4 hours wasted.

This is getting quite frustrating. My trial period is almost over, in 1 day, and I have yet to have this program working properly. I have set aside a bit of time each day to work on it and not really getting anywhere. Is it possible to extend the trial period? I haven't been able to "try" anything during this trial period simply because the program will not install the VM's that I want to use it for. This trial period has been effective at nothing other than wasting my time.