Sunday, January 8, 2017

Boot USB from parallels VM (trick with ISO/floppy)


A couple of years ago it was not possible to boot from USB on every computer (where the BIOS doesn't support this). There was a tiny ISO image which allows for booting from a USB stick.


Now we have the same situation with software for virtual machines such as VMWare, Parallels Desktop and this ISO is useful again. I use Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac OS X which doesn't have an option to boot from USB or USB stick.


I have following real world situation:
I have HDD with Linux installed. It is not like Live CD, it is already configured by me. I use it on my computer at work to boot environment I like and I use it at home to have same environment.
Sometimes I work with Mac OS X and want to download something for my Linux (such as updates and new software) and configure something if I need.


I can't boot from it using Parallels Desktop or VMWare because BIOS in this VMs doesn't recognize my USB or it can't be attached before I run my VM.


Where can I find an ISO that would allow me to boot from a USB stick?


Answer



Add a new Hard Disk to your VM and then select the option to use a physical disk. Afterwards just choose the disk that corresponds to the USB disk, you can even use the option to select individual partitions to deduce what is the actual # for your USB drive.


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