Creating an Image of a Real Hard Disk

The Parallels Image Tool can create images of real hard disks. Such disks are intended mainly for migrating data from your real computer to a Virtual Machine. Since configuration of the Virtual Machine is probably different from the hardware configuration of your real computer, an operating system installed on the real disk (if it is installed) is not likely to function properly on the Virtual Machine. Thus such virtual disk is not recommended to serve as startup disk, rather it should be attached to an existing configuration as an additional one.

An image of a real hard disk is created in plain format only. See the Format of The Virtual Disk in the Hard Disk Images topic for description of the plain format.

Virtual hard disk in plain format occupies all its size right from the moment it is created. This means that the disk image is the same size as the real disk itself, regardless of how much space on the real disk is actually used. So, to create an image of a real hard disk you should have one real hard disk more for storing the image file. And to accommodate the image, the size of the additional hard disk should be not less than the size of the one you made a copy of.

Note: In order to create an image of a real hard disk you should have an additional hard disk connected to your computer for storing image of the first one. Additional disk should be at least 5% larger than the first one.

To create an image of a real hard disk:

1. Start the Parallels Image Tool. When starting for the first time, the Wizard greets you with the Welcome to the Parallels Image Tool screen. Click Next.

   

2. On the Select device type screen select the Hard Disk Drive option and click the Next button to move to the Select operation type screen.

   

3. On the Select operation type wizard screen select the Create new Hard Disk image option and click Next button.

   

4. On the Specify source and destination folder screen do the following:

   in the Source field select physical hard disk to be duplicated,

   in the Destination field specify destination directory and file name for the disk image file that should be located on another physical hard disk.

   

   Click Next.

5. Review the settings carefully (operation type, source and destination folder) on the Review processing options screen. If everything is correct, click Start button to start creating the disk image.

   

6. While the operation is being performed the Execution in progress screen is displayed.

   

7. After the disk image is ready, the Processing is completed screen appears. Close the wizard by clicking the Exit button. The disk image is now located in the destination folder specified on step 5 and you can connect it to a Virtual Machine in the Configuration Editor. See the Adding New Devices to Virtual Machine to know how to connect to a Virtual Machine a new hard disk image or the Hard Disk Options to replace one of the currently connected hard disks with the new one.

   See also the Hard Disk Images to know concepts of using hard disk images in Parallels Workstation.