Can a virtual machine be split across multiple drives?

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I am considering the option to move my existing Windows 7 image to run inside Parallels on my new Mac. It appears this is possible and not that unusual.

But, I am speccing the new Mac to have an SSD and fixed disk. I want the W7 image to run fast but at 200Gb, I don't want to use all my SSD on a single VM.

Is it possible to do the same thing with VMs, as regular PCs, where you put OS/applications on SSD and data files on a slower larger drive? Modern VMs are very clever and so I wondered if this was possible - maybe even move the data files into a separate drive somehow.

Mr. Boy

Posted 2014-10-19T19:14:44.800

Reputation: 3 710

Answers

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While I have never used parallels, every other VM software I have seen allow you to create multiple "virtual drives" and each one can be represented by a separate file.

You then can put your small fast "virtual C:" file on your SSD and put your slow big "virtual D:" on a separate large spinning disk drive.

EDIT: Here is a link to the parallels documentation on how to add an additional virtual drive to the VM.

Scott Chamberlain

Posted 2014-10-19T19:14:44.800

Reputation: 28 923

Thanks. Would it commonly be possible to do this after creating the VM? – Mr. Boy – 2014-10-19T20:20:10.287

@John I to have little experience with Parrellels, but YES it is common to be able to add more virtual drives to an existing machine if the virtual machine is powered off first. – Robin Hood – 2014-10-19T21:21:05.873

@John yes, as Robin said, all you need to do is first power down the VM and you should be able to add a new hard drive image to the VM. When you next turn on the VM it will act just as if you plugged an additional new hard drive to a real computer. – Scott Chamberlain – 2014-10-20T03:39:03.560

Asked: 2014-10-19T19:14:44.800

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Active: 2014-10-19T19:57:46.680