Extract text from VMDK files
To convert your VMDK file to another format, you need VMware Workstation or other Disk Image software.
To convert other file formats to the "Virtual Hard Disk" file type, you need software like VMware Workstation or a similar tool.
The .VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk) file format is the standard container for virtual hard drives used by VMware Workstation, VMware ESXi, and Oracle VirtualBox. These files act as the physical hard drive for a virtual machine, storing the operating system, applications, and user data.
While .VMDK is an open format, users frequently face difficulties due to massive file sizes (often reaching terabytes) and platform lock-in. A common frustration is the "split" disk format, where a single drive is fragmented into multiple 2GB files (e.g., disk-s001.vmdk), making manual file management chaotic. Furthermore, native Windows tools cannot easily mount or inspect these drives without specific drivers, and migrating a VM to Microsoft Hyper-V or cloud environments like Azure requires complex command-line conversion tools.
To overcome compatibility barriers, converting .VMDK is often necessary. For Windows-native virtualization or Azure migration, convert to VHD or VHDX. For open-source KVM/QEMU environments, the QCOW2 format offers superior compression and snapshotting. For general archiving or cross-platform portability, converting to the OVF (Open Virtualization Format) standard is recommended.
Convert.Guru analyzes your VMDK file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted OVA, OVF, VMX, VDI, SCOREBOARD, VBOX, QCOW2, VMSD, IMG, VHDX, NVRAM, ZIP and XZ files.
If you want to convert VMDK file to QCOW2, VHDX, VHD, OVA, ISO, VDI, VMX, OVF, IMG, DMG, HDD or QCOW, you can use VMware Workstation or similar software from the "Virtual Machine Storage" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert VFD, DMG, OVA, IMA, VBOX, ADF, PVS, VHD, OVF, ISO, DSK or IMG files to VMDK, try VMware Workstation or another comparable tool in the "Virtual Machine Storage" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our VMDK converter.