How to Convert a Virtual Disk from Thin to Thick

via VMware vSphere 4 – ESX and vCenter Server

Convert a Virtual Disk from Thin to Thick
If you created a virtual disk in the thin format, you can convert it to thick.
The thin provisioned disk starts small and at first, uses just as much storage space as it needs for its initial operations. After having been converted, the virtual disk grows to its full capacity and occupies the entire datastore space provisioned to it during the disk’s creation.
Procedure

1. Select the virtual machine in the inventory.

2. Click the Summary tab and, under Resources, double-click the datastore for the virtual machine to open the Datastore Browser dialog box.

3. Click the virtual machine folder to find the virtual disk file you want to convert. The file has the .vmdk extension.

4.Right-click the virtual disk file and select Inflate.

The virtual disk in thick format occupies the entire datastore space originally provisioned to it.

How to Convert VirtualBox VM to VMware VM

1. Make sure you do not have any snapshots on your virtual machine; if you do, delete them.
2. Open cmd
3. Cd C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox
4. vboxmanage clonehd “C:\Users\guy.naftaly \.VirtualBox\HardDisks\HAProxy2.vdi” VMHAProxy2.vmdk -format VMDK -variant standard -type normal –remember
5. When the command finishes, you will have your new VMware hard disk on the same location as your original Virtualbox hard disk.

Attaching New VMware Hard Disk to New Virtual Machine

1. Upload the vmdk file to your destination data store.
2. Open VMware Vsphare client and connect to your destination ESXI server.
3. Create new VM and chose existing HD and add the vmdk that you created.

How to Convert a VirtualBox VM into a VMware VM.