Have you received a VMDK file but don’t know what it is? Have you noticed that the file is huge in size and don’t understand why? No problem, I tell you right away that you are dealing with a file of a ” virtual machine ” and that special tools are required to open VMDK.
In this guide, without getting lost in useless chatter, I will first explain what a VMDK file is but above all how to open VMDK with completely free software.
Index
- What is VMDK
- How to open VMDK
What is VMDK
First of all it is good to understand what a VMDK file is; these are files used by virtualization programs to store virtual machines. VMDK is in fact the acronym for Virtual Machine Disk and it contains nothing but the virtual disk of a machine. So, in a nutshell, if you have a VMDK file, then you have a virtual computer that you can open through a virtualization program.
The VMDK file is native to VMWare software but can be read and created by other programs such as Virtual Box.
How to open VMDK
To open VMDK, as I told you, you will need to have virtualization software available. I advise you to use Virtual Box because it is completely free and also available in a Portable version so you don’t have to install anything. For the installation of Virtual Box consult this guide , the operation is very simple and will not take you more than 5 minutes.
Once the virtual box installation is complete you are ready to open VMDK; open the Virtual Box application and press the button on the top left with the word New .
In the next screen, all you have to do is assign a name to the machine (use a name to help you identify the contents of the machine), the Type (the type of operating system) and the version of the operating system. Press Next and select the item Use an existing virtual hard disk file ; at this point press the button with the folder symbol and select the VMDK file you want to open. Press Create to complete the virtual machine configuration.
Here we are, if everything went well the machine has been created and you are ready to open the VMDK file. You just have to double click on the machine name and wait for its operating system to load.
