VirtualBox & Native VMWare .vmdk images (IDE only!)

I am trialling the three main Virtual Machine client/workstation options, mainly for SharePoint 2010 development on the move:

• Microsoft’s Hyper-V
• VMWare Workstation
• Sun VirtualBox

The main reason for the trial was that my Windows 2008 R2 laptop won’t hibernate with the Hypervisor role enabled and Hyper-V services started… it is a server OS after all. This really bugs me as I like to “pause” my work at least once a day. VMWare Workstation is cheap enough for one license, but if I need it I might need to make the case for all our devs too… it becomes a several thousand £ decision so need to be sure the (free/cheaper) alternatives aren’t fit for purpose.

The 30 day VMWare Workstation trial passed with flying colours but thought I’d check on the latest VirtualBox offering.

I was delighted to find that my main VM which originated as a Hyper-V VM, then converted successfully using VMWare’s converter to a .vmdk image can be read natively by VirtualBox – this rocks! It means that I don’t need to worry about converting back & forth.

Just be aware that the .vmdk image must be setup as an IDE drive (not SATA!) otherwise a nasty BSOD will occur that no amount of “chkdsk /F” will resolve… phew!