How do I make a VMDK format virtual hard drive from a physical partition on a disk?

Posted by Ahmad on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Ahmad
Published on 2011-10-22T16:37:47Z Indexed on 2012/12/19 5:05 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 519

Filed under:

partitioning

|

vmware

|

disk

|

clone

|

vmdk

I have a 320 GB HDD, which actually only has an 80 GB NTFS format partition which was being used by a Windows 7 system ... I want to create a VMDK format clone of this partition, so that I can use it with VMware .. However, tradition VMDK creation programs normally make a VMDK for an entire disk, whereas I just want to make a VMDK for the one 80 GB partition ... This is important because the other 240 GB on the physical source HDD is just unallocated area, and including that in a VMDK file is just a plain waste of space ..

So how to make a VMDK file for a specific partition ? Any tool available for this ?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about partitioning

Partitioning Webcast Details - 17/03/2010

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Hi AllHere are the details for Wednesday's (17th March 2010) webcast on Partitioning:Webcast is at http://strtc.oracle.com (IE6, 7 & 8 supported only)Conference ID for the webcast is 6168728There is no conference keyPlease use your real name in the name field (just makes it easier for us to help… >>> More
UNR Installation: Partitioning Error

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hi all, I have a Samsung N120 netbook (with upgraded 2GB RAM). I'm trying to install Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but when I set my partitions, I get an error. The setup I want right now is: Recovery Partition - 6 GB Windows XP Home Partition - 40 GB General Partition - remaining space UNR Partition -… >>> More
Parallelism in .NET – Part 5, Partitioning of Work

as seen on Reed Copsey - Search for 'Reed Copsey'
When parallelizing any routine, we start by decomposing the problem. Once the problem is understood, we need to break our work into separate tasks, so each task can be run on a different processing element. This process is called partitioning. Partitioning our tasks is a challenging feat… >>> More
How do I mount a "DiskSecure Multiboot" partition?

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
For a hard drive that has 4 or 5 partitions, I was able to mount one of them using Ubuntu LiveCD: sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt but is there a way to mount to the other partitions? (if using sudo fdisk -l, it only shows /dev/sda) GParted's snapshot is: Right now, the fdisk info is as follows: ubuntu@ubuntu:~$… >>> More
Can't remove GPT data from MBR

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having difficulty getting the Ubuntu installer (and gparted) to recognize the partitions on my MBR type disk. Other operating systems and disk tools read the disk structure and the files on it fine. I have used fixparts to write a new MBR but the issue persists. I assume the issue stems from… >>> More

Related posts about vmware

VMware sort VMware Go Pro sa solution de virtualisation Cloud pour PME, passerelle vers VMware vSphere

as seen on Developper.com - Search for 'Developper.com'
VMware sort VMware Go Pro Sa solution de virtualisation Cloud pour PME, passerelle vers VMware vSphere VMware vient d'annoncer la sortie de sa solution de virtualisation Cloud pour les PME : VMware Go Pro. VMware Go Pro a pour principal objectif de faciliter les efforts de virtualisation… >>> More
vmware network installation problem

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
After installation from vmware_bunddle it shows network device error during configuration(First run). Log File: 2012-04-03T20:01:24.881+06:00| vthread-3| I120: Log for VMware Workstation pid=5766 version=8.0.2 build=build-591240 option=Release 2012-04-03T20:01:24.881+06:00| vthread-3| I120: The… >>> More
Run Windows in Ubuntu with VMware Player

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Are you an enthusiast who loves their Ubuntu Linux experience but still needs to use Windows programs? Here’s how you can get the full Windows experience on Ubuntu with the free VMware Player. Linux has become increasingly consumer friendly, but still, the wide majority of commercial software… >>> More
I'm trying to install VMWare tools on Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS and I seem to have a problem with Kernel headers

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS installed on a VMware machine on Windows 7 host. I seem to have a problem with Kernel headers when trying to install them I did: sudo apt-get install gcc make build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r) Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading… >>> More
VMWare player - compiling server modules - Ubuntu 13.10

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
While running Ubuntu 13.04 whenever the Linux kernel had been updated, this used to make vmware player happy: sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all Yesterday I upgraded to Ubuntu 13.10 and lo and behold, the above workaround does not work anymore: Unable… >>> More