VMware Communities
EmilioS
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

move or copy .vmdk file to other disk

We are not able to copy or move the .vmdk file from a Workstation Pro VM.

Who can help explaining how to copy/back-up this file.

We have to replace our HDD because of errors on the disk.

Please help!

Tags (2)
0 Kudos
2 Replies
RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership

You should be able to move the entire VM's folder to another computer - that's one of the marvels of virtualization!

Is the guest OS shut down, and the VM powered off?  Also close the Workstation UI.  This should leave the VM in a known good power-off state (instead of suspended on a particular CPU type), and all file locks should be removed.  Then, just copy the whole folder.

0 Kudos
EmilioS
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for your reply and effort to reach out to me.

Until now it seems impossible to copy my Windows 7 x64.vmdk file on my Windows10-x64 PC system.

I have stored all the VM files on an internal HDD and need to copy them to another disk because of a warranty replacement of the HDD.

The guest OS is shut down, and the VM powered off. The Workstation UI is also closed and the software also (Workstation pro).

With copying, or with using SyncBack Pro, the .vmdk file refuses to be copied.

I really get frustrated why this seems not possible.

Just to make a back-up of the whole VM ...

Thanks if you can help me out.

0 Kudos