Does VMWare Player Plus support VHDX disc image files?

[mikechallis]

I am using VMware Player to run a virtual machine on my desktop, and have successfully created one from a VHD file that contains a system disk image.

I now wish to add a data disk image that is a VHDX file - it is too large for a VHD image - but VMware Player does not recognise this.

Does anyone know if VMware Player Plus will accept such an image? Or even VMware Workstation?

Thank you

Mike

[WoodyZ]

I do not believe a .vhdx virtual hard disk is supported and you'll need to just add a .vmdk and then transfer the contents of the .vhdx to the .vmdk.

I've done this with a system volume on a .vhdx by mounting it and also mounting the .vmdk then use Ghost to image one to the other.

[rcporto]

Check this blog post: http://www.vladan.fr/how-to-convert-vhd-vmdk-starwind-v2v-converter/

[WoodyZ]

If one has disk imaging software like Ghost then it's fast and easier to image a mounted .vhdx to a mounted .vmdk otherwise one has to first convert the .vhdx to .vhd and then convert to .vmdk however from what the OP said "I now wish to add a data disk image that is a VHDX file - it is too large for a VHD image", so imaging the contents from one to the other is probably going to be a better option!

[mikechallis]

Many thanks to both of you for your prompt responses.

I'm relatively new to VMware Player (this is my first VM) and I hope you'll forgive me for asking a few more questions about how to copy a vhdx image to a vmdk image.

I know how to create a new vmdk disc in my VM, but I don't quite understand how to mount the vhdx image; I'm also not familiar with Ghost, so some more details there
would be most welcome. I'm also not sure whether VM Player will allow me to create a vmdk disc that is bigger than 2TB (a quick Google suggests that this depends

on whether the underlying file system is VMFS-3 or VMFS-5) but I can try that out easily enough.

Thanks

Mike

[mikechallis · Accepted solution]

Thanks for all this input which - after further experimentation - has enabled me to solve my problem. I have two files created by Microsoft's disk2vhd utility containing my System disk and my Data disk; the former is a VHD file and the latter a VHDX file because the Data disk is larger than 2TB. I wanted to create a VM from these two files - either on my Windows 7 host or my Windows 8 host. It's not possible on Windows 7 because the OS does not support mounting VHDX files as drives, but the following scheme works on Windows 8:

a) Use Winimage to convert the System.VHD file to System.VMDK  (takes a long time)

b) Create a VM on the WIndows 8 host, installing the OS later by removing the empty VMDK file and adding System.VMDK as an IDE drive

c) Mounting the Data.VHDX file as a drive on the Windows 8 host by attaching it.

d) Creating a new .VMDK file in the VM that is large enough to hold all of Data.VHDX (yes, VMPlayer can create .VMDK files larger than 2TB - even on Windows 7 as it happens)

e) Sharing the drive created from Data.VHDX file as a shared folder in the VM

f) Copying its content to the new .VMDK file

No doubt Ghost would be a better way to copy the file, but this way seems to work for me.

Thanks for all your help - I think this closes this discussion.