Parallels to VMWare disk image conversion

Jeff Mancuso July 13th, 2007

I’ve gotten a few questions regarding my Switch to VMWare Fusion post – namely, how do you go about converting your existing Parallels virtual disk so it’ll run inside VMWare Fusion.

Unexpected answer – VMWare Converter. This free tool is designed to convert a physical machine into a VMWare format virtual machine. Nothing says you can’t have it convert a virtual machine, usually, it just doesn’t make much sense.

You’ll need to either install VMWare converter inside your Parallels VM or do a “remote” connection to it, set a few configuration options and then let’r rip. Hope you’ve got some extra hard drive space, you’ll need room to store the additional copy of your virtual hard drive while the conversion is being performed. Enjoy.

UPDATE: VMWare has some detailed instructions on this process in their forums

  • Jonathan Ragan-Kelley

    As an addendum, I can say from experience that this is somewhat less than ideal. My creaky Parallels XP install became a creaky VMware image, with broken activation thanks to changes in the virtual hardware. Your mileage may vary.

  • http://symbiatch.jutut.fi/ Symbiatch

    And the converter doesn’t support Windows Vista yet :P

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