Convert a HyperV Image to VMWare

Problem: You have the physical files for a Hyper-V virtual machine and you need to convert it to VMWare. (Maybe you’ve downloaded one of Microsoft’s demo systems such as their SharePoint 2010 Information Worker Evaluation VM.)

Solution: If you have access to HyperV, load the image in HyperV and use VMWare’s stand alone converter. It’s awesome. Point it at your HyperV server, select the server, and the converter does the rest.

If you don’t have access to HyperV, all is not lost.

Option 1: Install Virtual PC, create a new virtual system, use the VHD from the image you have. Start that system up in VPC, ensure it’s running, shut it down, then use VMWare’s Import feature to read the .vmc file Virtual PC created. (VMWare’s Import will deal with .vmc files from VPC, but not the .xml or .exp files from HyperV.)

Unfortunately, the image I was trying to import wouldn’t come up in VPC, so I was left with the less elegant, funky sledgehammer approach of

Option 2: Grab WinImage, a nifty piece of shareware that lets you convert a VHD directly to a VMDK – the format VMWare uses. Download it, install it, launch it, use Disk | Convert Virtual Hard Disk image. Select the source VHD, choose to use a fixed or dynamic target disk type, then give it the name and location of the target VMDK. (See the very nice HOWTO.)

Now you can create a new VMWare image and use the existing VMDK. The VMDK’s format is from an older version of VMWare, but VMWare will nicely upgrade it for you.

Power on your VM and bask in your geeky awesomeness.

Then go pay for WinImage because they’ve saved your bacon and you should throw some money their way. That’s how shareware works, folks.