vmware-vdiskmanager error 0x3ebf

[goldeneye_007]

VMware Workstation 16.2.4 on Linux.

Trying to convert a monolithic flat disk 500GB into a split disk.

command used:

vmware-vdiskmanager -r "/home/user/flat-disk.vmdk" -t 1 "/home/user/newdisk.vmdk"

Output:

Creating disk newdisk.vmdk

Failed to convert disk: The specified file is not a virtual disk (0x3ebf).

[hunnypuppy]

I had a similar issue and then realized that I had 2 vmdk files, one was a few bytes and other large (the main virtual disk). The one with the few bytes was the description file (you can open with a text editor) which internally points to the large main disk. You need to specify the source as the descriptor file in such a scenario.