How To Mount and Open VHD In VMware?

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Are you stuck with the same problem “How to mount or open VHD in VMware”? Then in the search of this issue, you are landed on the right page. This technical guide helps you in the process of migrating a pre-configured Microsoft Virtual Disk(VHD) file to VMware. This means that you can open your VHD file in VMware only if you convert VHD to VMware. So, this post helps you to get the most relevant result for how to open or mount a VHD file in VMware.

In this post, you will be able to migrate and finally open the VHD files in VMware workstation.

Steps to Mount / Open VHD in VMware Workstation

Part 1: Prepare VHD File

  • Locate your VHD source file. You will find the file with the .vhd file extension.
  • Create a different folder inside your VMware VM directory. 
  • Now copy the source of your VHD file in your VMware directory.

Part 2: Creation of a new Virtual Machine

  • Start the Vmware workstation.
  • Then, click on the File menu.
  • Then go to New >> Virtual Machine option.
  • Click on the virtual machine. Then you will see a New Virtual Machine Wizard.
  • Here, choose the Custom(advanced) option between the two.
  • Hit on Next Button.
  • Now from the virtual machine Hardware compatibility page select the best-suited option according to your hardware from the Hardware dropdown menu after this click on the Next button.
  • Choose the I will install the operating system later option from the guest OS installation page and click on the Next button.
  • Now, on the next to leave all settings as default and then click on the next.
  • Change memory size to 1GB on the Virtual Machine page then hit on the Next button.
  • Now on the next page which is the Network Type page choose the desired option and click on the Next button.
  • On the next page leave all settings as default and hit on the Next button.
  • Now next page is of the selection of the disk page i.e., select a disk page.
  • Here click on the “Use an existing virtual disk” option and hit on the next option.
  • After clicking on the Next button you will see a Browse button and after clicking on it you will need to search the previously configured VHD file.
  • Choose the VHD file and Open it. After this, the navigation dialogue closes and you returned on the existing page.
  • Here, once again verify all the file names and paths properly and click on the Next button.
  • Finally, click on the Finish button to finish this process.

Part 3: Edit the VMX file

  • First of all, exit from your VMware workstation. 
  • Now move to the VMware folder which we created in part 1. Check that this folder must contain the VHD file and have VMSD, VMX and VMXF files along with it.
  • Here, Right-click on the VMX file in the posting named win2k301.vmx, and here choose the Open with option and then choose the Notepad option (As the VMware files for setting are open with Notepad).
  • Now, change the scsi0.the present setting from True to False.
  • Also, change the “scsi0.present” setting from True to False.
  •  Now, add few steps in the following setting:


ide1:1.present = “TRUE”
ide1:1.deviceType = “disk”
ide1:1.fileName = “Win2k3R2EE.vhd”

  • Now, in the end, save and close the VMX file.

Part 4: Mount and Open VHD in VMware

  • Open the VMware Workstation. 
  • Now, if you are facing blue screen error then this might be due to that you didn’t properly edited the VMX setting file( hence you need to check all the changes properly).
  •  And if all the changes setup successfully then you will see a Windows setting with various Windows setup dialogue. And the rest startup works normally.
  • After log-in to the Windows, if you find a missing curser or if it is stuck in a corner then use the Troubleshooting I option below.
  • And if you will get the problem to shut down the Windows VM then use the Troubleshooting II option below.
  • Finally, by using all the above steps carefully. You will be able to open your VHD file in the VMware.

Read here: How to Convert VMware VMDK to VHD file?

Final Thoughts

In this technical blog, we have got to know about “How To Open VHD In VMware player” by using the manual ways. This blog is also helpful for those who are searching or planning to convert VHD to VMware.  The process used here merely involves the minor changes to the VMware setting file for VMware. Also, these are the manual ways but if you find the problem in conversion and opening of your VHD files due to corruption or any unwanted error then you are highly suggested to use the third party VHD Recovery Software that offers to open & recover VHD file data in a most appropriate way. This tool helps the user to access the corrupt VHD file and to recover maximum possible data from them.

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