Importing a Boot Camp partition in VMware Fusion

Products

VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to import your Boot Camp partition into VMware Fusion.

An imported Boot Camp virtual machine has access to features that are not supported when booting directly from an existing Boot Camp partition (such as taking snapshots and the ability to suspend). For more information, see Working with VMware Fusion and Boot Camp partitions (1014515).

This process creates a copy of the physical disk and converts it to a virtual disk (.vmdk), leaving the original Boot Camp partition intact. The imported Boot Camp virtual machine and the Boot Camp partition have no further connection.

Environment

VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion 11.x
VMware Fusion Pro 11.x
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion 1.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Fusion 7.x

Resolution

Note: VMware Fusion is essentially copying your Boot Camp partition into a file on your Mac OS partition. This process requires an amount of free space on your Mac OS partition equal to the size of the Boot Camp partition. If your Boot Camp partition is half the size of your hard disk, you cannot import it to your Mac. You must use an external hard drive with enough free space and save the imported virtual machine there.

To import your Boot Camp partition:

Launch Fusion.
From Fusion's menu bar, click Window > Virtual Machine Library.
Right-click the Boot Camp entry in the Library.
Click Import.
Enter an administrator username and password, then click OK.
Next:
- For Fusion 3.x and above, 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.
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.

If you encounter any difficulties, see Troubleshooting importing a Boot Camp partition into Fusion (1027882).

Additional Information

After importing your Boot Camp partition successfully and testing the newly created virtual machine, you can optionally delete the native Boot Camp partition to save the hard disk space allocated to it.

If your Boot Camp partition does not appear in the Virtual Machine Library so that you can import it, see:

For Fusion 3.x and above: Preventing Boot Camp from appearing in Fusion's Virtual Machine Library (1014806)
For Fusion 1.x and 2.x: A Boot Camp virtual machine fails to power on with a disk error (1003483)

A Boot Camp virtual machine fails to power on with a disk error
Working with VMware Fusion and Boot Camp partitions
Preventing Boot Camp from appearing in Fusion's Virtual Machine Library
Troubleshooting importing a Boot Camp partition into Fusion