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Can I add a Boot Camp partition as a secondary drive in Parallels?

I saw your earlier article about how to use a Boot Camp partition as the virtual machine in Parallels on my Mac (see Booting off Boot Camp in Parallels) but I don't want to risk having the same Windows install running in two different environments (Boot Camp and Parallels). Instead, is there a way that I can access my Boot Camp partition while I'm in my Parallels virtual machine?


Dave's Answer:

This is all getting complicated for sure! There is a way that you can set up your Boot Camp partition as a secondary IDE drive in Parallels, and I'm suspecting that's exactly what you seek. Let me step you through the surprisingly easy steps...

First off, you want to start up Parallels and then use the Windows "turn off computer" feature to ensure that your virtual machine is not running. You can't just pause as changing the configuration while your VM's paused can really mess things up. Stopped? Good.

Now you'll want to go to Edit --> Virtual Machine... and you'll see this:

Parallels Configuration Editor (Mac OS X / Windows XP)

Click on "Add.." on the lower left:

Parallels Configuration Editor: Add Hardware (Mac OS X / Windows XP)

You want to add a Hard Disk, so make sure that's highlighted and click on "Next" to see your options:

Parallels Configuration Editor: Add Hard Disk (Mac OS X / Windows XP)

Choose "Use Boot Camp", click "Finish" on the bottom and you're done. Your configuration should show the new drive too:

Parallels Configuration with two hard disks available (Mac OS X / Windows XP)

Now the first time you restart your virtual machine, you'll see it tell you that new hardware has been detected, an "IDE drive", and that, after a little bit of behind-the-scenes tweaking, it's ready to use. At that point you can simply go to "My Computer" and you'll see the new drive appear, like magic:

Parallels with Two Hard Drives in 'My Computer' (Mac OS X / Windows XP)

That's all there is to it.


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Categorized: Mac OS X Help , Windows PC Help   (Article 7272, Written by )
Tagged: boot camp, mac os x, parallels, windows xp
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Reader Comments To Date: 2

Ed Miller said, on September 18, 2007 1:17 PM:

I've already put Boot Camp to my Mac. Can I now put in Parallels?

Mokky said, on April 18, 2010 11:29 AM:

Dear Dave ,
Plz help
on Mac , I want to make 2 partitions for windows in addition to mac partition
one partition for system and another for my data ( both NTFS )
coz I prefer not to save my data in system partition not to be lost if formatted , but actually boot camp can't make me that
your reply would be appreciated

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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