Parallels Overview and Importing a Vmware Guest

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Parallels makes desktop and server virtualization products for Mac and Windows users. In this overview and demo, I show how I converted a Windows guest VM (virtual machine) from Vmware's Fusion (or Windows Desktop) to Parallels Desktop for Mac.

History

I use a portable USB drive that is formatted using NTFS. Apple's operating system, namely Mac OS X, does not write to this partition type. As a result, I was using a free utility, namely NTFS-3G. This is a wonderful app that allows me to share my 320 GB USB drive between my Windows and Mac computers. Unfortunately, I aka QueenGeek, wasn not thinking when I applied Apple's recent firmware upgrade. DOH!!! Well, the upgrade broke NTFS-3G but I'm confident that an update will be forthcoming.

The Problem and Solution

In the interim, I could not run my Windows guest VM because the USB drive was viewed as a read-only partition by my Mac. Additionally, I was unable to copy the guest machine locally to the Mac. Fortunately, Parallels and VMware are pretty good about keeping their utilities current such that migration to the other's manufacturer's platform is pretty painless. Enjoy the video!!