How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image Overview You can use VMWare Converter 5.1.0 or higher to convert an Acronis backup file (TLB file) to a VMWare image. However VMWare Converter only supports Acronis True Image Echo 9.1 and 9.5, or Acronis True Image Home 10 or 11. This is not the same as Acronis 11. To accomplish the conversion if the Acronis backup image from any version other than the supported versions listed above, you must first convert the TLB file to a VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) file and then convert the VHD file to a VMDK file. The VMDK file can then be used to create your VMWare image. To convert from a TLB format to a VHD format, you will need to use Acronis True Image 2014 or higher. If you don’t have this utility, there is a free 30 day trial which will allow you to convert the TLB file to a VHD file. If you are going to be doing this often, you may want to purchase this utility. After you have the VHD file, you then can use a free utility named StarWind V2V Image Converter to convert the VHD to VMDK format. Converting Acronis TIB backup file to Microsoft VHD Virtual Hard Drive file Acronis backup solutions use proprietary disk image and archive format that has a TIB file extension. Data in TIB files can be compressed, encrypted and protected with password. First thing you need to do, is to convert the TIB image to VHD Virtual Hard Drive format. Older versions of TIB files created by Acronis True Image version 10 and 11 (released in 2006 and 2007) can be converted by the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone directly to VMDK disk format. 1.) Download and install the Acronis True Image to your computer. It is available as a trial that works 30 days after installation. http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/trueimage/ GE Intelligent Platforms 1|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 2.) Start Acronis True Image Figure 1: Acronis True Image main window 3.) Click on the Tools and utilities tab. Scroll down in the list of tools and select Acronis backup conversion option. Figure 2: Acronis True Image tools GE Intelligent Platforms 2|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 4.) Select the backup archive from the table, or click on Browse button and select the .tib file you want to convert and click on Next button. Figure 3: Acronis True Image conversion tool select .tib file GE Intelligent Platforms 3|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 5.) Select location for new VHD file and click on Next button. Figure 4: Acronis True Image conversion tool select destination 6.) In the summary window click on Proceed button. Figure 5: Acronis True Image conversion tool summary GE Intelligent Platforms 4|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 7.) Wait till the conversion will be finished. Converting VHD Virtual Hard Drive to VMware VMDK Virtual Machine Disk format VMware Workstation is not able to use the VHD disk format as a virtual drive for its virtual machines, but with free StarWind V2V Image Converter you can simply transform a VHD disk to a VMware VMDK file format. 1.) Download and install the StarWind V2V Image Converter. http://www.starwindsoftware.com/converter 2.) Start V2V Image Converter and Click on the Next button. Select source file, in our case the converted TIB backup. Figure 6: V2V Image Converter select source GE Intelligent Platforms 5|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 3.) Select new image format, in our case the VMWare growable image. Figure 7: V2V Image Converter select image format 4.) Virtual disk type set as a SCSI drive. Figure 8: V2V Image Converter select kind of disk GE Intelligent Platforms 6|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 5.) Select output destination and name. Click on Next button and wait until the conversion is finished. Figure 9: V2V Image Converter select destination file GE Intelligent Platforms 7|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image Create a new virtual machine in VMware Workstation Now you have prepared a bootable virtual disk for VMware Workstation. 1.) Open VMware Workstation and select File menu → New Virtual Machine option. WMware will open the New Virtual Machine Wizard. Figure 10: VMware Workstation create new virtual machine GE Intelligent Platforms 8|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 2.) Select Custon (advanced) option and click Next. Figure 11: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard 3.) Select Virtual Machine compatibility (virtual machine features) and click Next. Figure 12: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard hardware compatibility GE Intelligent Platforms 9|Page How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 4.) Select I will install the operating system later option and click Next. Figure 13: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard guest operating system 5.) Select guest operating system which is the same that was installed on the system from where you created the Acronis TLB image and click Next. Figure 14: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard select OS GE Intelligent Platforms 10 | P a g e How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 6.) Set the virtual machine name and location and click Next. Figure 15:VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard set name and location 7.) Set processor configuration and click Next. Figure 16: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard processor settings GE Intelligent Platforms 11 | P a g e How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 8.) Set memory size and click Next. Figure 17: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard set memory size 9.) Set network type and click Next. Figure 18: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard network settings GE Intelligent Platforms 12 | P a g e How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 10.) Select I/O controller type to BusLogic (Recommended) and click Next. Figure 19: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard controller settings GE Intelligent Platforms 13 | P a g e How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 11.) Select Use an existing virtual disk option and select the .vmdk file from your hard drive and click Next. You may get a message asking if you want to “Convert existing virtual disk to newer format?”. You can either choose to “Keep Existing Format” or “Convert”. If you convert to the latest format, then this image will only be able to be opened in this version of VMWare or higher. If you choose to keep the existing format then it is backwards compatible and will work in older versions of VMWare. Figure 20: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard select disk GE Intelligent Platforms 14 | P a g e How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 12.) You will get a review of the new virtual machine. You can click on Customize Hardware if you want to make any changes. If everything looks good, then click on the Finish button. Figure 21: VMware Workstation Virtual Machine Wizard summary window GE Intelligent Platforms 15 | P a g e How To Convert an Acronis Backup File To a VMWare Image 13.) And that's it. Click on Power on this virtual machine option and wait until the system boots up. Figure 22: New Virtual Machine ready to power on GE Intelligent Platforms 16 | P a g e