.vmdk file cannot be opened

[#1]

Hello,

I have moved from Virtualbox to VMware. My problem right now is that I don't want to create a new VM but instead move the system from VB to VMware. The system is saved as a .vmdk file. Thing is that I can add a new hard disk but apparently not a .vmdk file. I got 2 of them: "name of Virtualbox system".vmdk and "name of Virtualbox system"-flat.vmdk. It accepts the normal .vmdk file but unfortunately not the -flat.vmdk. The "flat" file is needed because that is the real VM file (since it's 100GB and that's the actual size of my system)

I do hope that someone can help me out. Thanks in advance!

[dariusd]

Usually the "normal" .vmdk file should be very small (1-2 kBytes).  It contains a description of the layout of the virtual disk, and that will include a reference to the "-flat.vmdk".  You should only need to add the "normal" .vmdk file to your virtual machine, and the resulting virtual hard disk will contain the 100GB of data from the "-flat.vmdk".

Hope this helps!

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Darius

[melihtozlu]

Hello,

that, how you explain it, should acutally confirm my thoughts and also should solve the problem. But it isn't. Yes, you're right: the "normal" .vmdk file is pretty small (like I have explained above...) but it doesn't "redirects" me to the flat file.

[dariusd]

It won't visibly redirect you to the flat file.  VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion will open the .vmdk file, will find the reference to the -flat.vmdk file, and will (internally and invisibly) open the -flat.vmdk file and use that.  The virtual machine should then have access to the contents of the entire virtual hard disk.

If that is not what is happening, perhaps you have an incorrect or corrupt .vmdk file.

If you provide a bit more detail about what you see there, it would help me understand what is happening.  For instance, do you get an error message immediately when you try to add the .vmdk file to the VM?  Or does Workstation/Fusion allow you to add it to the VM but then it does not show up in the guest?  Or does the guest simply not boot up after the hard disk is added?

Please stick to just adding the .vmdk file and not the -flat.vmdk file... that is what you need to do and we need to figure out why that is not working for you there.  Trying to add the -flat.vmdk file directly is not going to succeed.

Thanks,

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Darius