If you are switching from VirtualBox to Parallels Desktop 14 on Mac OS X, then there is a built-in tool with Parallels which will help the migration process of virtual machines from VirtualBox to Parallels. You do not need to run any third party conversion tools or terminal commands to convert VDI to HDD. This guide shows you how to convert VirtualBox VDI to Parallels 9 HDD in Mac OS X. The same steps are applicable for latest Parallels versions including version 13 and future versions.

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This post is a step by step explaining how to convert a Parallels Virtual Machine to a VirtualBox Virtual Machine. If this post helps you out, I’m collecting money for Christies Cancer Hospital and it would be good if you could contribute a small donation. Parallels Desktop for Mac is desktop virtualization software that allows users to run a guest operating system, such as Windows, Linux or Chrome OS, on a Mac. It also allows for two OSes to run simultaneously, and users can swap between them. In the VDI Agent Information dialog, click Add to add the VDI host to the Parallels RAS farm. (If your VDI host is running Nutanix Acropolis or KVM and you see a warning message that Nutanix Acropolis (or KVM) was not found, ignore it and continue).

Without any doubts, Parallels for Mac is the best desktop virtualization software to run virtual machines including Windows 10, Windows 8 and 8.1 on macOS host. It’s having few great tools will help to run Windows programs and Mac Apps simultaneously. Oracle VirtualBox is another free software which does the similar job on Mac OS. Since the Parallels is a paid software, you get the premium support and features. Also, they specifically target and work well on macOS host whereas VirtualBox covers Windows, Mac, and Linux hosts.

Converting or exporting your working VMs between the virtualization software may be difficult sometimes. It mainly depends on both software and their compatibility to adopt other virtual disk file formats on the software. Oracle VirtualBox uses VDI file format and Parallels uses HDD file format. We need to convert the VDI to HDD to open and use the virtual machine which was created on VirtualBox.

How to Convert VirtualBox VDI to Parallels Disk Format in Mac

To convert VirtualBox VDI to Parallels HDD, open the app, but do not start any virtual machines.

Click on File, select New Virtual Machine and open ‘Add Existing Virtual Machine’ as shown below.

Now browse the VirtualBox virtual machine folder. In this example, I tried to convert an existing Windows 8.1 virtual machine on VirtualBox to Parallels on Mac OS X 10.9. Select the VBOX extension.

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Next message will show the required space for conversion. Make sure you have enough disk space to convert VDI to HDD.

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During the conversion process, the virtual machine needs to be switched on for Parallels hardware configuration, extra tools installation and to complete the upgrade. Click Yes to continue, everything will be done automatically.

The VirtualBox virtual machine you are converting should be powered off (shutdown) even not in the saved state before starting the conversion process.

Mostly the process will be succeeded and the VirtualBox virtual machine VDI will be converted to Parallels HDD in Mac. You can straightaway switch on the converted virtual machine in Parallels. Hope this guide is helpful in converting the VM from VDI to HDD.

Parallels, a provider of cloud services automation and virtualization software, recently concluded its Parallels Summit event in Miami. The company made a number of big announcements during its show, including the launch of a bare-metal hypervisor virtualization platform for Apple's Xserve hardware.

Parallels had yet another announcement hidden up its sleeve for the Mac virtualization market, but chose to break the news after the conclusion of the Summit. The company recently announced that it has added support for Google Chrome OS as a guest operating system for Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac.

[ Read the InfoWorld review of running Windows on a Mac with Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac, VMware Fusion 3, and Sun VirtualBox 3.1. | Make sure to keep up with the latest virtualization news with InfoWorld's virtualization newsletter. ]

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac was launched in November of last year, and the company billed it as the fastest desktop virtualization platform available on the Mac, reportedly running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 with speeds up to 22 percent faster than on VMware Fusion.

Running Windows, Linux, and even Mac OS X in a virtual machine on a Mac computer makes a lot of sense, but this announcement of support for such an early version of Google Chrome can certainly be categorized as unexpected. Unexpected, not because of any disrespect to Google's Chrome OS, but because it seems pretty uncommon to have a major vendor make such a bold announcement of support for a guest operating system that is still in the early stages of beta and hasn't yet made it to a 1.0 release. Considering the long beta cycles of Google applications in the past and the possible number of beta builds that Parallels will need to support along the way to a final release, that could take a large amount of effort by team Parallels to keep up with support. A publicly available stable release of Google Chrome OS isn't expected until sometime in the second half of 2010.

So why the announcement?And why the support of Google Chrome as a guest operating system?

Kim Johnston, vice president of marketing for consumer, business, and online at Parallels, said, 'There is already a huge amount of interest in Google's new OS, even though it's still just in beta, so we want to make sure our customers can try it out on their Macs without impacting their primary work environment on Mac OS X.'

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Johnston added, 'It's important to us that we continue to innovate to meet our customers' needs, giving them the ability to use the broadest range of applications possible, whether on Mac, Windows, Linux, or Chrome operating systems.'

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From a marketing perspective, I suppose it's always nice to announce support for something first, whether people are really beating down the door to get it or not.

To be sure, the Google name will ensure quite a few people attempting to at least 'try' the new operating system out. And what better place to try something than within a virtual machine where it can do little harm? So I say good for Parallels.

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This story, 'Parallels Desktop for Mac adds Google Chrome OS support,' was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in virtualization at InfoWorld.com.