.hdd file not uploading

[PeterQ]

my dad is helping me put a virtual machine on my Mac to run windows and he gave me his old VM. It is a .hdd file and when i go to create a parallel to run in Virtual box the system tells me it cannot open the file. is there a program I am missing or something I'm doing wrong?

Thanks

[mpack]

Your question is open to several interpretations. Please try to be a bit more precise about error messages - give the exact wording, and the context in which it occurs. A picture often helps.

I'm going to assume that you're trying to "port" a VM from Parallels to VirtualBox.

".hdd" is the virtual hard disk format used by "Parallels", which is a VM application for Macs. Parallels does not publish the format of their virtual disks, but the version 2.0 format has been reverse engineered and that is what VirtualBox supports. If you have a later format then you need to convert it to V2 format: Parallels provides a tool which can do that. An alternative is to run a disk imaging application inside the old VM. The image would be in a more portable format which VBox almost certainly supports (even if indirectly). I could give more details if I know what the guest OS was.

Once you have the disk in a format supported by VBox you need to create a new VM, then when you get to the disk creation step you select "Use Existing" and indicate your disk file.

On extra tip: I would suggest that you not try to use an "hdd" file directly, as it's a very limited format. It would be much better if you converted it to VDI format using "VBoxManage clonehd <hdd filename> <vdi filename> --format VDI".

[loukingjr]

once all that is done and you have your new VM running you may have to remove the Parallel tools.

edit: from what I've been reading, you actually need to uninstall Parallels Tools before you try and boot the .hdd or convert it. I don't know if that's still true. The info was from quite a while ago.

[mpack]

Yes, any Parallels specific drivers etc will need to be uninstalled from the VM. This is especially important for Windows VMs. It's easiest to do this before the port, but it's also often possible to do this after the event by booting Windows guests in safe mode.