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 PVHD disk images 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 stores the complete contents of a hard drive in a virtualized container. It is primarily used by Parallels Desktop to emulate hard drives for Windows or Linux guest operating systems on macOS. Alternatively, Paragon Software uses it for sector-level system backups and disk imaging. These files are heavily proprietary, lack standard open-source documentation, and easily exceed 100MB, often reaching hundreds of gigabytes. You cannot simply open a .PVHD file in a web browser or standard archive utility. They lock your data inside a specific software ecosystem. Users usually need to convert .PVHD to VHD, VMDK, or VDI to migrate virtual machines to VMware or VirtualBox. Standard online converters fail because they cannot parse the proprietary file system map or handle the massive file sizes required for disk images. This file format is difficult to open or convert online because only the original virtualization or backup software can properly mount the data blocks. However, just drag and drop your file onto convert.guru to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. Our analysis engine can inspect the file header, identify whether it is a Parallels or Paragon container, and show embedded text or metadata. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PVHD file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
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 "Virtual Hard Drive Storage" 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 "Virtual Hard Drive Storage" 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.