Everyone can make a mistake and build a virtual machine on a Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2. Soon you will discover that you made the wrong choice 
and want to convert this virtual machine to the VMware VMDK virtual disk format. Arne Fokkema the Dutch ICT-Freak created a little how to and I translated his document. With the latest version of Winimage (8.10) you can convert the VDH virtual disk format to a VMDK virtual disk file. In this case we are going to convert a Longhorn Beta 3 (Windows Virtual Server 2005 R2) virtual machine to a VMware virtual machine.
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Convert Virtual Disks from VHD to VMDK
Start WinImage. And choose the menu option "Disk".
Now click the Convert Virtual Hard Disk image option and open select the VDH file.
Now select the option "Create Fixed Size Virtual Hard Disk" and click <OK>.
Give your new VMDK file a name and click on <Save>.
The conversion will start.
After this conversion you can start your Longhorn server. The last step is installing the VMware tools and your server is converted.
Happy converting and many thanks to Arne Fokkema.
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Does this work for converting the MS sample VHDs to VMDK for testing purposes so one does not have to install MS Virtual Server etc. etc.??
Or will one run into activation etc. issues because the "hardware" is so different??
Thank you, Tom
#1
Tom
on
2007-09-10 19:47
(Reply)
Also you can use the VMware Converter.
#1.1
Roy Hu
on
2009-09-08 07:42
(Reply)
Hello,
I know that is little bit long time from your post, but may I ask you how to use VMware Convertor for convert VHD to VMDK? Convertor plugin for vCenter cannot convert vhd disks or I cannot find it..
many thanks
JZ
#1.1.1
Josef ZACH
on
2010-12-14 11:16
(Reply)
Hallo und Help,
Converting in this way is no problem, but teh vmdk files wont start in VMWare Plare or VMWare Workstation?!?!?!?!?
#2
Frank
on
2009-07-12 07:55
(Reply)
Here is a great guide to succesfully convert a:
VHD hard disk file to a VMDK
and/or a
VMDK hard disk file to a VHD
http://www.sertec.ca/howtos/VMware-server.html
Cheers,
Pete
#2.1
Pete Ca
(Homepage)
on
2009-09-05 03:15
(Reply)
Check out this product: http://www.smartdeploy.com/Products/SmartDeploy/VirtualDisk.aspx
SmartVDK will convert from .vhd, .vmdk, .vdi and/or .hdd to any of the aforementioned formats.
It is free for non-commercial use.
#3
arachnode.net
(Homepage)
on
2009-10-21 20:17
(Reply)
Great Post! No idea that WinImage could do this.. Thanks for the tip!
CARLO.
#4
Carlo Costanzo
(Homepage)
on
2009-12-10 16:17
(Reply)
This tool is so really strong.ai i know ,vmware needs an file named *.vmx to run.Or,it will be fail when use an single vmdk file
#5
Anonymous
on
2010-06-22 03:43
(Reply)
This tool will clone the whole disk...
#5.1
zombie
on
2010-06-22 08:55
(Reply)
I've tried this!But there is a problem i can't solve.
I mount an extend physical disk on my computer.This disk has OS
infomation and so ...you know ,of course contains partion infomation
My system partion has 10GB space,and now ,the OS takes 2GB,then 8GB free.use
a tool called "disk2vhd"(product of Microsoft,it's free)to convert the
system partion to a vhd file.After good working,a vhd file has been
created:2GB.
now ,I use "wininmage" convert the vhd file to vmdk file.Unfortunatly,
after converted,the vmdk file has 10GB.In other words,if my whole disk
size beyond 100GB,then ,the vmdk file will this size...uh,,,i mean,
there is not enough space to save the vmdk file.
SO,IS THERE ANYNONE TELL ME HOW TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?THANKS VERY MUCH.
POST E-MAIL:asmbull@126.com .THANKS AGAIN
#6
zombie
on
2010-06-22 05:10
(Reply)
can this be runed on on vm player?
#7
mike
on
2011-03-22 00:55
(Reply)
