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VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) file format

.vmdk  ·  virtual disk image  ·  introduced 1999 by VMware

What is a VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) file?

VMDK is the virtual disk format pioneered by VMware in 1999. The specification is open and now supported by VirtualBox, qemu, and most cloud import tools. VMDKs can be split across multiple files, sparse, or streamed for OVA appliance distribution.

Most readers reach this page after double-clicking a .vmdk file and finding their operating system unsure what to do with it. The good news: VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) is a well-understood format with mature tooling on every major platform. It is supported in one click by mainstream archivers on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

How to extract a VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) file

Opening a .vmdk file is straightforward on every modern operating system. The exact steps depend on which platform you are on:

On Windows

  1. Locate the .vmdk file in File Explorer.
  2. Right-click the file. If you have 7-Zip installed, choose 7-Zip → Extract Here. On Windows 11 the built-in extractor handles ZIP, 7z, RAR and several other formats directly through Extract All…
  3. If prompted, pick a destination folder and click Extract.
  4. The extracted files appear in a folder next to the original archive.

On macOS

  1. Find the .vmdk file in Finder.
  2. Install The Unarchiver from the Mac App Store, or Keka for both creating and extracting.
  3. Right-click the file → Open With → The Unarchiver (or just double-click after Unarchiver is set as the default).
  4. The extracted folder appears next to the archive.

On Linux

  1. Use your file manager: right-click the archive → Extract Here (file-roller on GNOME, Ark on KDE).
  2. On the command line, run one of: 
    7z x archive.vmdk    # works for almost any format
  3. The files appear in the current directory.

How to create a VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) file

To pack files into a .vmdk archive, you typically need an archiver that supports writing this format. Not every tool can create every format — for example, only WinRAR can create real RAR files. The sidebar lists the software known to read and write VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk).

On the command line, the canonical create command is:

# Use 7-Zip, PeaZip, or the format's reference tool to create .vmdk files.

If you regularly create archives at scale, a dedicated archive automation suite can wrap this command in scheduled jobs, integrity checks, and offsite replication.

Strengths

  • Open specification
  • Wide hypervisor support
  • Streaming variant for downloads

Weaknesses and limitations

  • Multiple sub-formats can confuse tooling
  • Sparse files inflate when copied with naive tools

Typical use cases

  • VMware virtual machines
  • OVA appliance distribution
  • Cross-hypervisor disk transfer

Technical details

VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) uses the Sparse / streaming algorithm and is identified on disk by the magic byte sequence KDMV. The standard MIME type is application/x-vmdk. The format is an open specification and is free for any use.

Frequently asked questions

Is VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) safe to open?

Archive files are containers — they are only as safe as what they contain. A .vmdk from a trusted source is fine; one received from a stranger can hold malicious executables, scripts, or files engineered to exploit bugs in your archiver. Always keep your archiver updated, and never run unknown executables that come out of an archive. A safe workflow is to extract into a sandbox and scan the contents before opening anything.

What is the maximum file size?

Modern implementations support archives in the multi-terabyte range. The practical limit is your filesystem (FAT32 caps at 4 GB; ext4, NTFS, APFS, and exFAT all comfortably handle multi-TB files).

Can I password-protect a VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk)?

Some archivers can wrap VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) files in an encrypted container, but the format itself does not always include built-in encryption. Check your archiver's documentation.

How does VMDK (VMware Virtual Disk) compare to other formats?

See our format comparison pages such as ZIP vs 7z, ZIP vs RAR, and tar.gz vs tar.xz for side-by-side feature tables.

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