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Recovering Files from Parallels Image

Posted: 05 Nov 2013, 02:16
by n0t0ri0usj
Hi everyone,

I recently discovered my instance of Windows XP that is virtualized under Parallels Desktop Version 6 is corrupt and will not open. I discovered that photorec may be able to help obtain the files within the Windows XP image. My questions is how do I successfully do this? If I open up the contents of my Windows XP.pvm file, I see a Windows XP-0.hdd. Is this the file I want? Also, I am very new to unix, so what is the proper command that I need to provide photorec? Thanks!

Re: Recovering Files from Parallels Image

Posted: 08 Nov 2013, 19:14
by cgrenier
Attached the virtual disk with the damaged filesystem as a second disk to a working VM and use PhotoRec inside the VM to recover files from the second disk.

Re: Recovering Files from Parallels Image

Posted: 08 Nov 2013, 20:51
by n0t0ri0usj
Thanks for the reply!

When I tried to mount the original image and booted up the new VM, it could not read Hard Drive 2. Correct me if I am wrong, but PhotoRec won't work if it isn't mounted as a hard drive (viewable in Windows Explorer).

Re: Recovering Files from Parallels Image

Posted: 09 Nov 2013, 08:43
by cgrenier
No need for the disk to be listed in Windows File Explorer, it only need to be detected in Windows Disk Manager.