Extract text from HDD files
To convert your HDD file to another format, you need Parallels Desktop or other Disk Image software.
To convert other file formats to the "Virtual Machine Storage" file type, you need software like Parallels Desktop or a similar tool.
The .HDD file extension serves two distinct but technically complex purposes. Most prominently, it is the native virtual hard disk format for Parallels Desktop, a popular virtualization software for Mac. These files act as containers for an entire guest operating system (like Windows running on macOS), encapsulating the file system, boot sector, and user data. The significant catch here is the proprietary nature of the format; opening an .HDD file without a paid Parallels subscription is difficult. Furthermore, on macOS, an .HDD file is actually a package (a folder masquerading as a file), which causes corruption or access errors when users try to copy it directly to a Windows or Linux machine without compressing it first. Users often need to convert these large, locked-down files to VMDK (for VMware) or VDI (for VirtualBox) to migrate their virtual machines to free or cross-platform hypervisors.
Alternatively, in the realm of consumer electronics, .HDD files are used by satellite receivers and set-top boxes (specifically those using ALI Corp chipsets) to store system backups or recorded TV streams. These files typically utilize zlib compression and are not recognized by standard media players or archivers on a PC. Users encountering this variant often struggle to retrieve their recorded video, necessitating conversion to standard containers like MP4 or MKV for viewing, or simple extraction for data recovery.
Convert.Guru analyzes your HDD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted PVM, FDD, JPG, SSD, GPT, NAS, VHD, USB and MBR files.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HDD converter.