If you frequently use VirtualBox , one of the best free virtual machine software, then you should know how to convert an ISO file into a VirtualBox hard disk (VHD). The process of converting is also more difficult than booting Virtual from the ISO file, instead of using an xx.iso file and then converting it to a Virtual disk. It's very helpful, especially when you want to customize the image file or use it for testing. In this guide today, we'll walk you through how to convert a bootable ISO file into VHD or VMDK using Command line. This tutorial will be both for Mac and Windows computers.
ISO file is the most widely-used format for OS installation. While you can still use the ISO file to directly start up any OS on virtual disk image like VirtualBox, VMWare, if you do not want to install ISO file, converting it to VDI format (Virtual desktop infrastructure) will be the best idea. You can consider the pre conversion way to directly convert an ISO file into an VHD/ VMDK using VirtualBox. You can convert:
VHD/VHDX File - Virtual Hard Drive image file In this blog, we will discuss that how can we mount DMG in Windows. But, before going further first we have to know about a DMG file in brief. IOS or MacOS developers may need to use XCode for their applications. On the other hand, you might own a program which can only be run under Mac, or perhaps you just want to try and see how Apple's operating system works. Sep 04, 2015 Mac OS X 10.9; This is a self made 10.9 mavericks full dmg. It only has osx 10.9 vanilla image. To better explain, the article is provided by macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 download DMG. Besides that the macOS High Sierra comes up with advanced software named macOS High Sierra ISO for VMware & VirtualBox. There is no other reason as macOS High Sierra DMG is most loved and highly recommended by the users. Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft'sVirtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use inMicrosoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). Thedifference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is thatyou can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online.
- VDI to VMDK and opposite
- VDH to VMDK and opposite
- VDI to VHD
After the conversion, you can directly boot the operating system from VHD/VMDK . Here is how to use Command line tool on Windows 10 and MacOS. It's also the same for Linux OS.
Convert Bootable ISO File to Virtual Disk VHD/VMDK on Windows
Before proceeding, make sure you have the VirtualBox software already installed on your computer. It can be downloaded for free since it's open source tool. We'll get started with Windows computers by converting ISO file to VMDK.
Step 1: Open Command Prompt (Powershell) on your Windows computer. Run it with administrator
Step 2: Go to the VirtualBox directory in C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBox. From there, open cmd and run the following command:
cd Program FilesOracleVirtualBox
Step 3: In the VirtualBox directory, run the command to convert ISO to VMDK:
VBoxManage convertfromraw [file.iso] [file.VMDK]
You should replace the filename.ISO with the name of the IOS file, along with file patch
Step 4: In our circumstance, the ISO file is on the Desktop, and the name of the ISO file was system.iso. You can follow the command below:
VBoxManage Convertfromraw C:USersJackDesktopsystem.iso
C:UsersJackDesktopsystem.vmdk
The file path in the command above is the file path where the ISO file is. You can use Windows Explorer to find the patch from the Address bar.
Steps to Convert ISO to VHD
Similar to converting ISO to VMDK, changing it into VHD is pretty simple.
Step 1: Run Command prompt (cmd) on your computer with administrator.
Step 2: Switch to the VirtualBox directory on your Windows computer.
Step 3: Once done, enter the following command:
VirtualBox convertfromraw file.iso file.vhd
Step 4: Then, continue to enter the command above:
VBoxManage Convertfromraw C:USersJackDesktopsystem.iso C:USersJackDesktopsystem.vhd
The only change here is that instead of writing VMDK, you enter VHD for replacement.
Convert Bootable ISO File to Virtual Disk VHD/VMDK on Mac
Dmg To Vhd
Converting a bootable ISO into a Virtual disk VHD/VMDK on Mac is almost the same with Windows. All you need is to open Terminal on your Mac and run commands. However, as mentioned earlier, you need to have VirtualBox app already installed on your Mac. Otherwise, you are unable to convert the ISO file to VHD/VMDK.
Step 1: Open Terminal on Mac by clicking on Finder > Applications > Favorites > Disk Utilities. You can also open it from the Spotlight.
Step 2: Type in the following command on your Mac and hit Enter:
VBoxManage convertfromraw DiskImage.iso VirtualDisk.vhd
For instance, if you want to convert the file into a virtualbox VHD file, simply enter the command below:
VBoxManage convertfromraw ~/Downloads/system.iso ~/VMs/system.vhd
Step 3: All the conversion process will take a few minutes, depending on the hardware of your Mac. Once again, you can use those commands on MacOS, Windows, Linux OS with typing in the ‘VBoxManage' command first.
Remember to capitalize the 'VBoxManage' and use correct capitalization to avoid 'not found' result after typing in the command since the problem comes from syntax error.
Another useful trick is to prepare a live disk, or create an ISO image with the help of command line. After you can convert it into VHD and then load it into VirtualBox. Alternatively, you can take the existing ISO files and then convert it into a VHD file, which is better for system admins.
Conclusion
Convert Dmg To Vhd
That's how to convert a bootable ISO file to Virtual disk VHD/VMDK. All the entire process is pretty simple and you can do it on your own. You might feel the commands are complicated, but in fact, you simply copy them into cmd/Terminal and make some changes. Do you know other methods to convert a bootable ISO file or a disk image into a VirtualBox VHD/VMDK? Let's know in the comment below.
I use a MacBook Pro in the field daily and find myself needing to spin-up some home-brewed Windows and Linux virtual machines quickly. To accomplish this, I prefer to build and maintain several VM’s utilizing VMware Fusion Pro on my Mac. Granted; VMware Fusion is “I believe” an inferior product to it’s nearest competition, especially when it comes to connecting to and uploading VM’s directly to multiple VMware vSphere server environments. It does have a major shortfall I recently ran into: there is no ability to easily convert VMDK into VHD files.
Typically, I find myself doing most of my conversions directly from physical hosts (P2V) or from Hyper-V host to VMware ESXi hosts. We do however have a few clients that use Hyper-V in their environments and luckily, Microsoft does have a utility for easily converting VMware virtual guest OS directly from your vSphere environment, or in my situation, from a VMware Fusion VMDK file to a Hyper-V VHD file.
- First, you will need to download and install Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 3.0 from Microsoft’s website.
- Next, open an elevated PowerShell prompt and run these command (changing the paths to match your source VMDK file and destination path of your new VHD file):
- Import-Module ‘C:Program FilesMicrosoft Virtual Machine ConverterMvmcCmdlet.psd1’
- ConvertTo-MvmcVirtualHardDisk -SourceLiteralPath “C:Ubuntu-disk1.vmdk” -DestinationLiteralPath “C:Ubuntu-disk1.vhd” -VhdType FixedHardDisk -VhdFormat Vhd
Then head over to your Hyper-V host and create a new virtual machine. When you get to the step “Connect Virtual Hard Disk” choose “Use an existing virtual hard disk” radio button and browse for the VHD file you just created.
Lastly fire-up your new Hyper-V virtual machine and hopefully all is good. That’s how you convert VMDK to VHD files! I hope you found this information helpful and thank you for reading!
This article was created based on the following setup:
- Mac OS X 10.11.3/VMware Fusion 8.1 (source virtual host)
- Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS 64-bit (source virtual machine)
- Windows 10 64-bit/PowerShell 5.0 (used to perform VMDK to VHD conversion)
- Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V (destination virtual host)