How do I migrate a dead PC's hard drive to Parallels?

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by Torley1, Jul 8, 2016.

  1. Torley1

    Torley1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    Hi, is it possible to migrate a PC's hard drive to Parallels if the PC is nonfunctional and I've removed the hard drive from it?
    I'm looking for way to do this, but the Knowledge Base only shows me examples with a working PC where I can install Transporter.
    Ideally, I'd like to:
    - Connect the SATA hard drive via USB adapter to my Mac.
    - Use Parallels to transform that hard drive into a virtual machine.
    Please let me know, thanks!
     
  2. Guna@Parallels

    Guna@Parallels Parallels Support

    Messages:
    416
    Hi Torley1,
    Migrating a non-functional Windows PC to Parallels Desktop is not possible. However, if the hard drive is in the working state, you may try replacing it with a working Windows PC so that you could install Parallels Transporter Agent to migrate it to Parallels Desktop.
    For Example: Assume you have two Windows Machine (Machine 1 and 2 ), Machine 1 one is completely dead but the hard hard drive still works and Machine 2 works fine. In this case, you may replace the hard drive of Machine 1 with Machine 2 so that you could boot and install Parallels Transporter Agent to migrate it to Parallels Desktop.
     
  3. ShawnB1

    ShawnB1 Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    I am in the same situation and do not have access to a working Windows PC. Are there any options? Disk image? ".hdd" creation?
     
  4. Ajith1

    Ajith1 Parallels Support

    Messages:
    2,534
    Hi ShawnB1 ,
    As suggested earlier, you cannot migrate Windows from a non-functional PC's hard drive unless you have another PC, but if you like to recover the files then you have an option. You have to create a Windows VM on your Mac, then mount that hard drive to Mac using USB devices available to connect the hard disk then move the data to the VM.

    Thanks,
    Ajith M.
     
  5. JimK4

    JimK4 Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    I am going to prefix this comment by saying that I have never actually tried this, but it may be possible to use VMware Converter to convert the physical disk to a VMware Fusion virtual machine, which you should then be able to import into Parallels Desktop.
     
  6. Guna@Parallels

    Guna@Parallels Parallels Support

    Messages:
    416
    Hi @JimK4
    Thank you for sharing this workaround.
     

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