How can I change the name of my virtual Hard Drive

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Symptoms:

I upgraded my Windows virtual machine, but its Hard Drive name did not change.

Resolution:

Note: Currently it is not possible to change the HDD name using Parallels Desktop Graphics User Interface. Below procedure is not recommended by Parallels, however you are able to do it at your own risk by altering the contents of .pvm bundle.

To change the virtual machine Hard Drive name follow step-by-step instructions below:

  1. Find your virtual machine by using the following article:

    How do I find my virtual machine on Mac?

  2. Make a backup copy of .pvm file by copying it to another location.

  3. Right click on .pvm > choose Show Package Contents > find your HDD (usually it is named as Windows x-0.hdd depending on your virtual machine's name, where x is the version of Windows, for example Windows 8.1-0.hdd) > change its name to the desired.

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  4. In the the same .pvm directory locate config.pvs > right click on it and choose > Open With > TextEdit.

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  5. In the appeared TextEdit file press command + F buttons to open Search Bar > in a Find field enter the following query:

    .hdd
    
  6. It will highlight the strings with your HDD name:

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  7. Change the HDD name in both strings and close config.pvs.

  8. Launch the virtual machine and make sure it boots normally.

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