Guest blog by Arun Raj, Parallels Support Team
Transferring Windows From Boot Camp Partition To a New Mac
Mar 24, 2020 From the notification area on the right side of the Windows taskbar, click to show hidden icons. Click the Boot Camp icon. From the menu shown, choose Restart in macOS. If you haven't installed the latest Boot Camp updates, you might get the message ”Could not locate the OS X boot volume.' Dec 28, 2010 bootcamp transfer files mac to windows. Windows uses NTFS and can move files to mac, however mac cant move files to windows. How to install Windows 10 on a Mac using Boot Camp Assistant.
If you’re reading this blog, chances are you are thinking to buy a new Mac (or already got one, yay!). Apple made it super easy to migrate all your files, applications and settings to the new machines with Migration Assistant. But what if you have a Boot Camp partition on your old Mac with all the Windows programs and files you need? Bad news – it won’t be migrated with Migration Assistant. But there is an easy way out! All you need to do is to import your Boot Camp partition into Parallels Desktop virtual machine and copy it to the new Mac. Yes, it’s that easy! The suggested method will not create a new Boot Camp partition, however you will have access to your old install from within a virtual machine.
Let me walk you through this three step process.
1. Create a virtual machine based on your Boot Camp partition
Once you have installed Parallels Desktop on your old Mac, you need to create a new virtual machine based on Boot Camp:
- Start Parallels Desktop and choose File > New from the menu.
- Click Use Windows from Boot Camp, and follow the onscreen instructions complete the setup.
- Start your Virtual Machine and let Parallels Tools install for the first time, followed by Windows restart.
2. Import your Boot Camp to the virtual machine
Now you need to physically import Windows into the actual virtual machine.
To do that, follow the steps below:
- Access Parallels Desktop Control Center.
- Right Click on your VM and choose Import Boot Camp.
- Sit back and relax! Parallels Desktop will notify you once the job is done.
Ready to see your virtual machine on your new Mac?
3. Transfer Windows to the new Mac
It is now as simple as a piece of pie to transfer your Windows (Parallels Desktop virtual machine) using an external hard drive or over the network. One of my friends had posted a blog on transferring a Windows VM from old Mac to new Mac. You can find it here. Copy, paste, done!
Mac Boot Camp
Your Windows is now all set to run on your new Mac without rebooting in Parallels Desktop.
Was it easy? Setup, import, transfer, go! And voila – Windows you set up in a Boot Camp partition on an old Mac is running in a virtual machine on the new Mac!
Move Space From Mac To Boot Camp Partition
I hope this blog, as easy as ABC, will be helpful for you and save a lot of time (by avoiding setting up a brand new instance of Windows). And yeah, are you following us on Twitter?