Extract VM after iMac Crashed *** SOLVED ***

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by NikoN, Jan 29, 2018.

  1. NikoN

    NikoN Bit poster

    Messages:
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    I had installed Parallels on my iMac with a windows 10 vm.
    And then iMac broke down. Burnt power unit and who knows what else. It deosnt turn on at all.
    I opened it, removed the disk and plant it on a PC.
    I can see the contents with hfsexplorer and extract them at the PC.
    I extracted the whole Parallels folder and .pvm and Windows 10-0.hdd.0.{blah blah blah}.hds and everything, .xml, xml.backup, .drh (about 150GB)
    and now what ?
    i had to put the disk back to the iMac to send it for repair.
    But I need the files from the virtual disk to work.
    Is there any solution ?
    I dont have access to a mac at all now. Only PC with windows 10.
    any help ?
     
  2. NikoN

    NikoN Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    Anyone ????
     
  3. NikoN

    NikoN Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    94 views and not even 1 reply.
    This can only lead to one conclusion.
    Parallels made a software which doesnt allow you to extract your data from a working disk if the computer crashes.
    Imagine if Microsoft or Apple did the same thing.
    Your computer crashes, you save your disk, you try to extract your data to work on another computer and Microsoft says "Sorry Mr, you cant read the disk. Game Over."
    Are we serious ?
    I dont even know now if there s a warning on Parallels Desktop saying "WARNING, take a backup of your data BECAUSE YOU CANT RETRIEVE YOUR FILES"
    I m sorry but from my point of view this is totally unprofessional.
     
  4. NikoN

    NikoN Bit poster

    Messages:
    4
    To whom it may concern.
    Thanks to Tasha Carl (blog.carl.pro) I finally extracted my files
    The solution provided is the following:
    1) Download Qmenu
    https://cloudbase.it/qemu-img-windows/
    2) download FTK Imager
    http://marketing.accessdata.com/ftkimager3.4.2
    3) convert your Parallels VM to a raw image DD file with the command line executable
    qemu-img.exe convert -f parallels -O raw "your-hds-file.hds" fnew-raw-file.dd
    (I dont know how long it took to convert it because my HDS file was 150 GB and i left it all night to convert. It might took it 1 hour or 5)
    4a) Open the converted DD file in FTK Imager
    File -> Add Evidence Item...
    4b) Find the largest partition in the drop down Evidence Tree at the left
    My partition of a 150 GB of hds file was 260 GB
    4c) find the [root] folder of the partition. This was my main vm disk
    4d) locate the folder or files you want (you can multiple select by holding the ctrl or shift keys)
    right click on them and select extract
    and thats it

    Finally I want to mention how obliged i am to Tasha Carl who responded so fast to my mail
    It worths to sepnd a few mins to visit Tasha's blog, you might find interesting thingies in there
    blog.carl.pro
     
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2018

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