How To Convert .IMG Files To .VDI For VirtualBox [Quick Tip]

To convert an .img file to .vdi in Linux, so that you can directly use it in VirtualBox, open a terminal and paste this:

VBoxManage convertdd  file.img file.vdi

For instance, to convert the recently mentioned ChromeOS Cherry from .img to .vdi:

VBoxManage convertdd ChromeOS-Cherry.img ChromeOS-Cherry.vdi

To do this is Windows (I haven't tested it but it should work), open cmd.exe (Start > Run, enter: cmd.exe), navigate to "C:\Program Files\innotek VirtualBox" (using the "cd" command), then run this (after placing the .img file inside the "C:\Program Files\innotek VirtualBox" folder):

VBoxManage.exe convertdd file.img file.vdi

Please let us know if you have tried this in Windows and rather or not it worked.

To use it in VirtualBox, create a new Virtual Machine, select "Use existing hard disk" and browse for the recetly converted .vdi file:

You may also want to check out how to create a shortcut to launch Virtual Machines without opening the VirtualBox GUI (for both Windows and Linux)