
Convert a Physical to a Virtual Machine
With the trend of virtualization, it becomes more and more important to know how to convert physical machines into a virtual machines (VM). However, vMware vCenter Converter Standalone is one of the easiest tool that perform this task for free.
Prerequisites
- Before starting, ensure that you have enough free space to store the new virtual disk (.vmdk).
- Ensure that the hard drive or network location must be formatted with NTFS, FAT32, or ExFAT. Converter does not recognize destinations that are formatted with HFS+ (Mac-formatted).
- Ensure that the firewall on your virtual machine is not blocking Internet access.
Conversion Steps
- Download & Install vCenter Converter (Link)
- Start vCenter Converter
- Go to File > New > Convert Machine
- Select source type: Powered-on machine
- Specify the powered-on machine to This local machine
- Click Next.

- Select VMware Workstation or other VMware virtual machine
- Select the VMware product you want to use to run the VM
- Introduce a Name to your VM
- Choose a location on a storage space to save the files and click OK
- Click Next

- Deselect the partitions that you do not want to convert.
- Click Next
- Click Finish to start the conversion

Useful Links:
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