OK, lets be real careful here! If you were to install Windows on the RAID1, it would NOT be able to read the VMFS volume on the RAID5. Don't make that mistake!
You need to move the VM's off of the ESX server one at a time. There is no way to convert the filesystem from VMFS. So what you want to do is:
A. convert your VM's to a compatible format for VMware Server
B. move them off your ESX host
C. place them on a Windows box that has VMware Server installed
There are 2 options that have already been offered in this thread that can help you out:
1. Use vmkfstools to export the VM's to a format that can be read by (free) VMware Server, then copy the exported files across the network to the Windows host with VMware Server. If you were to just copy the large .vmdk files from the ESX server they would not be readable by the VMware Server product. That is why GCR suggested the -d 2gbsparse option with vmkfstools. This would export the large .vmdk file into multiple 2GB files that you could copy off the ESX server and would then be compatible with VMware Server. So your command from the ESX server would be something like:
vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/VMFSName/SourceVM/Source.vmdk -d 2gbsparse /vmfs/volumes/VMFSName/DestinationVM/Destination.vmdk
2. Even simpler than the above option would be to download VMware Converter and install it on a Windows machine (your workstation, a Windows server, anything). When you run Converter, the source that you want to connect to is the IP address of the ESX server. The destination selection should be "Stand-Alone Virtual Machine" and you should specify some file share on your network to dump the outputted files to. This selection will allow the converter to do everything in step 1 automatically for you. In the end, you'll have a folder with all of the files that are needed for VMware Sever to start the VM (.vmx, .vmdk, nvram, etc.). The tool is free and very simple to use.
I hope this clears things up for you.
Good luck,
Rob
