Convert Virtualbox image: VMDK to RAW

[peter_b]

1) Quick-quick command list for converting a VMDK image file to RAW and then compressing it:

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$ qemu-img convert input.vmdk -O raw output.img
$ pigz -9 output.img

Using pigz instead of gzip, because it's multithreading (=faster)

2) Restore image to physical disk:

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$ pigz -dc output.img.gz | pv | dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4096

pigz arguments:

• -d: decompress
• -c output to stdout (to allow piping)

Make sure you have "pigz" (parallel gzip) and "pv" installed for it to work.
The command "pv" is optional, to show the transfer progress (MB/s).
If you don't have "pv", just remove it

[peter_b]

Here's the other way around:

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$ qemu-img convert -O vmdk imagefile.img imagefile.vmdk

This works well with a "dd" image from e.g. a USB stick.

Thanks to post by user "antonio" at superuser.com