Is it possible to import Parallels VMs?

[douglerner]

Rather than upgrade yet again from Parallels I'm thinking of trying VB. On the other hand, if possible, I would like to avoid recreating all my VMs.

Is it possible to import Parallels VMs into VirtualBox?

Thanks,

doug

[ChipMcK]

yes, after a fashion

First thing to do is have a copy of the Parallels VM without the Tools, Additions or whatever Parallels calls their package.
If Windows Guest, just Uninstall via Control Panel(s)

I prefer to then use Disk2vhd in the VM if a Windows Guest.

While the resultant .VHD is usable as-is in VBox, most convert to .VDI via the Terminal command VBoxManage

Code: Select all

man VBoxManage

or the User Manual

refer to VDI vs VHD vs VMDK

[douglerner]

Thanks. I will give that a try!

doug

[Jummy]

Hi,

I switched from Parallels to VB recently and I just browsed to the Virtual HDD (which is a bit tricky), renamed it, copied it to another location and opened it in VB.

-Find the VM that you wish to import in your Parallels folder (where all the VM´s are located - mine was in the Documents folder) and right-click -> Show Package Contents
-Locate the .hdd file, right-click and choose Show Package Content
-Locate the .hds file, copy it to another location and rename extension to .hdd
-You should now be able to "use existing virtual HDD file" when creating your new VM

Regards Jimi

[jorjitop]

Hello Jimi,

I tried you procedure as it is the simplest and got a VM which would not completely start. It opens to a page where I can select whether I want to start in Safe Mode, a couple of others, or start Windows normally. In Start Windows Normally, the countdown clock goes to zero and nothing happens. In Safe Mode, it scrolls through some startup process, but remains in the black screen and nothing further happens.

Any thoughts on what is going on? The only file that had an .hds extension looked like this: winxp.hdd.0.{5fbaabe3-6958-40ff-92a7-860e329aab41}.hds and I changed the .hds to .hdd as you suggested.

Cheers,
George

[Jummy]

Hi George

Did you copy the .hds file to another location?

I was thinking it could be disk controller related (AHCI/IDE) but if you created an XP vm it should default to IDE?

[jorjitop]

Hello Jimi,

Yes, I copied the .hds file to Desktop. Big file! 17GB!

But, it might be something to do with the disk controller because the lines of print when I tried starting in Safe Mode all related to "multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\ various stuff in .sys

Under storage it says Controller: IDE and then IDE Primary Master: and the file I copied as a .hdd

That's all I know.

Cheers,
George

[G1ng3rbr3adman]

Jimi,
Genius! You've helped me out of a hole - thanks.
J

[lockev3.0]

Hi Jummy !

I have done exactly what you said, taking the files from a suspended Parallels server. Created it all alright at VB but when I choose the kernel at Grub time it remains for ever at "Loading initial ramdisk"

Any extra clue please ?

[lockev3.0]

O Got it !!!!

Just had to force the SATA Disk automatically added to be my *.hdd image

Thanks !

[thanhle]

Hi Jimi,
Worked for me. Thank you very much!

Just want to note that when I copy the .hds file, I chose the biggest file because this one is the VM. Other .hds files are snapshots and do not work.

Hi,

I switched from Parallels to VB recently and I just browsed to the Virtual HDD (which is a bit tricky), renamed it, copied it to another location and opened it in VB.

-Find the VM that you wish to import in your Parallels folder (where all the VM´s are located - mine was in the Documents folder) and right-click -> Show Package Contents
-Locate the .hdd file, right-click and choose Show Package Content
-Locate the .hds file, copy it to another location and rename extension to .hdd
-You should now be able to "use existing virtual HDD file" when creating your new VM

Regards Jimi

[dbpaladin]

Just wanted to chime in with an additional report of success following Jummy's procedure. In this case a Windows 7 64-bit guest on a Mac OS X host.

Immediately following successful creation of new VirtualBox VM, I logged in to a Windows admin account, un-installed the Parallels Tools, restarted and proceeded with the installation of the VB Guest Additions. All is good.

[susa123]

Hi - I tried to follow the instructions put forth by Jimi, but I got stuck. I don't know if this has to do with the fact that I am running VirtualBox on OS X Yosemite, where I am trying to import a Parallels VM running Windows XP

I did the following:

-Find the VM that you wish to import in your Parallels folder (where all the VM´s are located - mine was in the Documents folder) and right-click -> Show Package Contents
-Locate the .hdd file, right-click and choose Show Package Content
-Locate the .hds file, copy it to another location and rename extension to .hdd --> My .hdd is ~45 GB
-You should now be able to "use existing virtual HDD file" when creating your new VM --> in the version of VB I am running (version 5.0.10 r104061), it says "use existing virtual Hard Disk File". Not sure if this makes a difference.

When I attempt to start the machine in VB, it says "FATAL: Could not read from the boot medium! System halted."

I have no idea where to begin debugging - help?

[Plin]

I'm in the same exact boat as susa123.
Any success on this issue?

[StevenJ]

I'm another person with this exact issue. Anyone resolve it yet?