write vmdk images on physical disk

[gabrigabri]

Hello, does anyone know if there is a tool to write vmdk images on physical disk?

Thank you

[wila]

Hi,

Any disk imaging software? (dd / partimage / ghost / acronis .. or just look at the list here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disk_cloning_software

Eg. you take a copy from the virtual disk and then write that copy to a physical harddisk.

If you want to do it without the intermediate step of making a copy then I'm not sure what product supports that, there's probably some, but I simply don't know.

--

Wil

[dariusd]

If you want to do it without the intermediate step of making a copy then I'm not sure what product supports that, there's probably some, but I simply don't know.

Without an intermediate copy: On a Linux host, vmware-mount -f <diskPath> <mountPoint> gives you access (on the host) to the raw blocks of the virtual disk... the resulting mountPoint/flat file on the host can be copied (with dd) directly onto an empty physical disk -- taking great care to ensure that you don't accidentally overwrite anything important!  Careful choice of args to dd allows for selection of a single partition from the source virtual disk, if needed.  I haven't checked whether Workstation for Windows has a similar option or capability.

Cheers,

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Darius