I did not have any luck with Starwind V2V Converter. Even though it mentioned free I ran into problems due to limited features.
Here are two truly free methods that I have tested and used:
- VirtualBox (Windows and Linux)
- qemu-img (Windows)
VirtualBox
Download the software from the official site
Open Command Prompt as Admin and run this command:
cd C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
Next run the following command with the correct paths to the vhdx file and where you want to store the copy
VBoxManage clonehd --format vmdk C:\temp\PLEX.vhdx ะก:\temp\PLEX.vmdk
The Linux command is very similar so if you are using Linux you should be able to figure it out but email me if you need help.
Qemu-img
Download qemu-img from the official site
Open a Command Prompt as Admin to the location of the program and you can run this command to view the disk info:
qemu-img.exe info c:\temp\PLEX.vhd
Here is an example of how to convert a vhdx file:
qemu-img.exe convert -p c:\temp\PLEX.vhdx -O vmdk c:\temp\PLEX.vmdk
One thing I want to note is I did receive the following error on ESXi 6.5
Error: File system specific implementation of LookupAndOpen[file] failed.
I never figured out the issue however the file did work ok for a while on ESXi 6.0. I say a while because the disk then had problems because the file was over 2TB
however after the upgrade I could not get the VM to run anymore and had to rebuild my PLEX server so create good backups if your vmdk file is large
I tried the following from the server with no luck
clone VM folder:
cp /PLEX.vmdk /temp/PLEX-fixed.vmdk
Use vmkfstools:
vmkfstools -i PLEX.vmdk PLEX-fixed.vmdk
References:
https://www.nakivo.com/blog/how-to-convert-vhd-to-vmdk-a-step-by-step-guide/
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/82057
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/Check-VMDK-for-Corruption/td-p/2282728
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/82673