What Is VDI?
VDI (Virtual Disk Image) is an open-source virtual disk format developed for Oracle’s VirtualBox hypervisor.
The file can be copied and shared for anyone to use.
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Loading the file into VirtualBox provides users with the option for fixed and dynamically allocated storage.
It is free, open-source, has great cross-platform support, and is portable.
Furthermore, withthe newest VirtualBox release, Linux users get secure boot support!
What Are VHD and VHDX?
VHD and VHDX are disk image formats developed by Microsoft.
Although development has ceased, VHD is still used in the newer Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor for various legacy applications.
VHDX stands for Virtual Hard Disc v2.
What Is VMDK?
VMDK files can now be run using VirtualBox, QEMU, Hyper-V, Workstation Pro, and Workstation Player.
VMWare’s virtualization products offer many advanced features that add functionalities and make handling VMs much more convenient.
For example, the free Workstation Players still perform better than VirtualBox.
However, you will miss out on extra features.
What About ISO?
ISO files are not specifically designed for virtualization.
ISO files are great for distributing OS images on the internet.
However, using them for virtualization requires a more detailed setup and potentially misses out on performance and features.
So, see to it you download virtual disk images instead of ISO files when available.
Can You Convert Virtual Disk Image Formats?
It is possible to convert virtual disk image files to other formats.
The VirtualBox Virtual Media Manager can convert ISO, VHD, VHDX, and VMDK to VDI.
More advanced users may convert multiple virtual disc images through PowerShell and VBoxCommands.
Ideally, you should use VDI for VirtualBox, VHD and VHDX on Hyper-V, and VMDK for Workstation.
For one-off situations, you’ve got the option to use them with whatever hypervisor you have.
But for longer use cases, you will want to consider converting your images instead.
