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.


  1. Before starting, ensure that you have enough free space to store the new virtual disk (.vmdk).
  2. 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).
  3. Ensure that the firewall on your virtual machine is not blocking Internet access.

Conversion Steps

  1. Download & Install vCenter Converter (Link)
  2. Start vCenter Converter
  3. Go to File > New > Convert Machine
  4. Select source type: Powered-on machine
  5. Specify the powered-on machine to This local machine
  6. Click Next.

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

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

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