PVHD Converter

Extract text from PVHD files

Select File
Drop or upload your .PVHD file

Online File Converter

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How to extract text from your PVHD file

Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your PVHD file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert PVHD to another file type

To convert your PVHD file to another format, you need Parallels Desktop or other Disk Image software.

Convert a file to PVHD

To convert other file formats to the "Virtual Machine Disk" file type, you need software like Parallels Desktop or a similar tool.

About PVHD files

A .pvhd file is a proprietary disk image format primarily associated with Parallels Virtual Hard Drive files used by Parallels Desktop for macOS. It creates a container for a virtual machine's hard disk, storing the operating system, applications, and user data. A secondary but common use is the Paragon Virtual Hard Drive, a backup format generated by Paragon Hard Disk Manager.

The main limitation with .pvhd files is their proprietary lock-in. Unlike standard formats like ISO or open specs like VHD, a .pvhd file cannot be natively mounted by Windows Explorer or macOS Finder. Users often encounter these files in old backups or when migrating from Mac to Windows (or vice versa) and find themselves unable to access gigabytes of critical data without purchasing specific software.

To access the contents, the best approach is conversion:

For Virtualization (VirtualBox/VMware): Convert the file to VHD or VMDK. This allows you to attach the drive to a free virtual machine and boot it or browse files.
For Archiving/Data Recovery: Convert to a raw disk image or mount it using Paragon Image Mounter to extract specific files without booting an OS.

Convert.Guru analyzes your PVHD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.

Users also converted NBU, MBW, QDF-BACKUP and VMDK files.

FAQ

If you want to convert PVHD file to VMDK, BAK, BACKUP, OLD, TMP, TEMP, ARC, ZIP, TAR, GZ, 7Z or RAR, you can use Parallels Desktop or similar software from the "Parallels Virtual Hard Drive" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert SNAPSHOT, OLD, IMG, RESTORE, ISO, COPY, VMDK, TMP, VHD, BAK, ARCHIVE or BACKUP files to PVHD, try Parallels Desktop or another comparable tool in the "Parallels Virtual Hard Drive" category.

The PVHD Converter Story

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 PVHD converter.