Support for existing VMWare HD?

missiled · May 3, 2006

My company uses shared VMWare clients and HD images on a server. This question isn't focused on whether or not I can run a VMWare client inside Parallels, because I believe the answer should be YES. The question is whether or not I need to install XP, apps, etc. inside my Parallels HD image, or whether I can perform some type of conversion of the existing VMWare HD images, and/or whether or not Parallels supports them natively?

Thanks in advance for your help. If this is possible, I can use the Parallels SW as a pure emulator, save tons of HD space, and always stay current with our corporate SW and not have to take up my valuable HD space with crappy XP.

Thanks.

David

drtimhill · May 3, 2006

missiled said:
My company uses shared VMWare clients and HD images on a server. This question isn't focused on whether or not I can run a VMWare client inside Parallels, because I believe the answer should be YES. The question is whether or not I need to install XP, apps, etc. inside my Parallels HD image, or whether I can perform some type of conversion of the existing VMWare HD images, and/or whether or not Parallels supports them natively?

Thanks in advance for your help. If this is possible, I can use the Parallels SW as a pure emulator, save tons of HD space, and always stay current with our corporate SW and not have to take up my valuable HD space with crappy XP.

Thanks.

David

But what about hardware? The VMware images will be setup against the VMware virtual hardware, which is different from PW. At best, Windows XP will have fun doing PnP during the first boot n PW. At worst, it will be dead in the water, since some of the low-level stuff may be too different.

--Tim

jeliker · May 3, 2006

drtimhill said:
But what about hardware? The VMware images will be setup against the VMware virtual hardware, which is different from PW. At best, Windows XP will have fun doing PnP during the first boot n PW. At worst, it will be dead in the water, since some of the low-level stuff may be too different.

--Tim

MS Virtual Server will read (convert) VMWare images. We do that at work all the time. Now that would be a great add-on to Parallels Workstation. If we could use VMWare/Virtual Server images, PW would be a category-killer.

drtimhill · May 9, 2006

jeliker said:
MS Virtual Server will read (convert) VMWare images. We do that at work all the time. Now that would be a great add-on to Parallels Workstation. If we could use VMWare/Virtual Server images, PW would be a category-killer.

So, here's a thought. This won't let you *boot* a VMware image, but you at least access the *files* on the image....

1. Make sure the VMware image is located somewhere that is accessible to your PW VM (e.g. on a network).

2. Startup the PW WinXP VM.

3. Download and install the (free) VMware DiskMount Utility (from www.vmware.com). Install that tool within the WinXP VM.

4. Use the tool to mount the VMware HDD.

Now, you have a PW WInXP session that can read (and write) to a VMware hard disk image.

--Tim