How can I transform my Boot Camp partition into a VMDK file?

Question

I'm looking for a clever way to upgrade to Windows 64 bits on my MacBook Pro's Boot Camp partition. This is the plan I have established (considering you can't just upgrade Win32 to Win64):

1. Move the Boot Camp partition to a VMDK file;
2. Overwrite the Boot Camp partition with a fresh Windows 7 64 bits install;
3. Reinstall programs and non-transferrable stuff;
4. On Mac OS, run both Win7 32 bits and Win7 64 bits inside VMWare Fusion virtual machines, and use Windows Easy Transfer.

The only problem here is that I don't know how to turn a physical partition into a VMDK file. There's enough room left on my drive for this, even without the slightest compression, I just don't know how.

I stumbled upon Live View, which can turn a raw image (dd style) into a VMDK. (There's no Mac OS version of it, but since it's Java, I assume I'll be able to run it anyways.) However, there's no explicit mention of Windows 7 in the list of supported operating systems.

Solution

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1015088

This is the easiest way to do it.

1. Launch Fusion.
2. From Fusion's menu bar, click Window > Virtual Machine Library.
3. Ctrl-click the Boot Camp icon in the left column.
4. Click Import.

5. Enter an administrator username and password, then click Ok. For Fusion 3.x, choose a place to save the new virtual machine (the default location is a folder called Virtual Machines, inside your Documents folder), and click Save.

   For Fusion 1.x and 2.x, when the Import Assistant launches, click Import.

6. When the import is completed, the newly created virtual machine appears in the Virtual Machine Library window.

Note: The time it takes for the import process to complete depends on the size of your Boot Camp partition.

Comments

[Admin]

this should answer your question: youtube.com/watch?v=zNYXWEdVivo

[William Hilsum]

@Zneak - any external USB Drive or similar? I usually write to a NAS... and, pretty much any other tool will come up with similar problems?

[Kris]

This method works like a charm in VMWare Fusion 5! The save dialog is a bit confusing as it states that 0,0 GB will be needed for the import but it will still copy the BootCamp partition.