How To Move Parallels VM To External SSD (macOS M1 Mac)

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[@MickHealey]

Andrew, this is a great video, thank you. Exactly what I was looking for. I recently bought a Mac Mini M2 Pro with 512GB SSD and 16GB RAM. It's great, but my Windows 11 VM under Parallels was using 50GB of my precious 512GB storage. That will only get bigger as I add programmes to it. I also want to add other VM’s, so migrating to external SSD seemed to be the answer. I refuse to pay extortionate Apple prices for storage. I already had a Samsung 2TB 970 EVO SSD (which I took out of my Synology 920+ NAS, as it wasn’t really making a difference to NAS performance for my purposes). Since I didn’t need to buy an SSD, I splashed out £150 on a 40GHz Orico M.2 SSD Enclosure. I’m getting 1280MB/s write, and 2859 MB/s read, so not too shabby at all. Following your video, I moved my Windows 11 VM to the new SSD, and bingo, it all works. Somebody above asked if the SSD runs hot. I just measured the Orico case after about 90 minutes of running, and the hottest point measured 41°C, which I think is fine.

[@JDFloyd]

Great video - it quickly, and easily answered my question about moving my virtual Windows 11.

[@anastacioiii4047]

Hey, thanks a lot for showing the folder for Windows 11 VM and for showing how to move using Command key.

[@patrickzimmermann9580]

Thanks for this clear and easy solution :)

[@dwyerisgod.]

Is the ssd getting hot when you are using it?

[@pruthvikumar1740]

Very helpful video with detailed instructions in few steps

[@thakingof801]

I’m running solid works from my parallel. When connecting my hard drive it asks if I would like to open in on windows or mac. With that being said, would it still be possible to open my solid works which is also on my hard drive?

[@thomasmosychuk3063]

Great help! Thank you!!

[@jitterrypokery1526]

Andrew is there a way to instead of making a vm and using an external drive to instead use an existing windows installation on a external drive and boot up that way?

[@Gaboshky]

Hi! thanks for the video, just a quick question, I see you have parallels pro, its only available for pro version? thanks

[@Nikitafrom233]

Thanks for the job, great content

[@Mill-on-da-track]

THANK YOU🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[@vicwalkk]

Very helpful, thanks!

[@ViviSophia8]

What VM did you get?

[@claudiakayla7097]

hi there do you know how to allocate a external hard drive to windows 11 because i keep getting those error messages that windows 11 has run out of disk space, so what i want the external hard drive to do is to take over disk space if the hard drive has been used up,

[@rachnaram]

Hi Thank You so much. The video was of great help. I have one question though. I have used the SSD with 1 TB capacity. The Windows has taken only 100 GB space. Can I keep some other files for example photos or videos in this SSD? Thanks again

[@christophgage]

Thanks!

[@leonalorelei6144]

Thanks

[@Annalise-n8r]

So my parallels wont open saying, "there is no operating system installed in this virtual machine" I have a macbook pro, I don't really understand what it wants me to do because i thought parallels has windows in it

[@axelgarmes]

Hi, great video. Does the SDD have to be in ExFAt or it can be used on an APFS disk?

[@basilscaria9463]

It can be in APFS or ExFAT. Best to be on APFS for faster disk speed.

[@SuchRush]

I have a question. I did what you did in the video which is perfect. But the parallels applications folder in the finder and go step, that folder keeps being made when I move it to the SSD. I want all the parallels stuff on the SSD, but I it keeps using the internal storage for the app maintenance. Any advice would be helpful. Cheers!

[@mihai_chindris]

I have the same problem as you! Have you found out anything yet?

[@SuchRush]

@@mihai_chindris unfortunately nothing. Just to manually move things from the internal storage to the SSD

[@icarohammer]

Great video! You saved me. What if I have some programs already installed before migration? I Believe they're still on my MacBook pro's drive.

[@escxmatt]

Is the MacBook you’re using 8gb ram?

[@llanc3r507]

I can’t find parallels desktop after clicking finder, Go, and home. This is for M3 Pro

[@ahmedadekoya3350]

Thanks for the video. Do we need to format the ssd as Apple File System (APFS)?

[@andrewtsaitips]

It can be exFAT or APFS, I recommend APFS.

[@nathanielbryan1009]

Thanks for the video, I would like to ask after you moved the Parallels to the SSD, the 85 GB in your Mac Storage will be automatically deleted right (Your storage available will increase 85 GB) ?

[@andrewtsaitips]

Yes as long as you did a move and not a copy in Finder.

[@nathanielbryan1009]

@@andrewtsaitips okay, thanks. One more question, does the Parallel in SSD will run as well as in Mac or there is significant differrence ?

[@mihai_chindris]

@@nathanielbryan1009 The read and write speeds of an external SSD will not be 'as good' as the read and write speeds of the Mac's internal SSD, because it is simply not as fast as Apple's own SSD. It may come close, but you cannot expect the same speeds. For the best speeds and the smoothest VM experience you can get from the SSD, opt for a 40GB/s enclosure. There are enclosures that support 10GB/s, but if you want the best of the best for your offloaded VMs, go with 40GB/s :)

[@jky422]

Will the performance of Parallels get affected after moving from mac to external ssd?

[@andrewtsaitips]

Not really! If your SSD does over 1000Mbps then it’ll be hard to tell any difference.

[@Kzedd1984]

Hi Andrew thank you for the amazing content ! I do like to know how to fix boot issues after Ubuntu kernel update on pd 17 Mac M1 thank you in advance

[@Blindstick1]

you can reverse to the older version when loading the VM.

[@guilhermemazorra1746]

Awesome brow, what external SSD are you using? can you give us the model? thanks

[@andrewtsaitips]

Try this DIY SSD kzbin.info/www/bejne/amS7ZIChatuEgZY

[@RoyalPain]

Nice.

[@jeremiahvarghese1697]

Does this works on m1??

[@andrewtsaitips]

Yes this is on M1.

[@policeman0077]

can version 16 do the same

[@andrewtsaitips]

No only the latest update of Parallels 17 can.

[@crissanchez1217]

Was able to move. But I got a message saying that the original could not be deleted. And I can’t even trash it.

[@fredrickkimani8002]

It will allow u to delete the original file, same thing happened and I was able to delete it

[@viktortsoi3994]

Lol im going all over fucking youtube and cant find any help. I’ve followed through but my parallels cant find operating system when I start vm. I’ve completely got rid of parallels and installed parallels again. Downloaded parallels to my ssd and installed it. They give you no damn option to change the drive. It just automatically installs it to my mac. I’ve changed hard disk source to my ssd but it’s no work.

[@aroopdatta8905]

This process does not work especially if Outlook is having big data .... I tried and this process is a flop of moving Virtual Machine to a SSD .... it does not work faced several issues

[@andrewtsaitips]

What issues did you have?