Convert virtual disk image to physical disk?

Question

I'm trying to use QEmu for Windows to convert a virtual disk image to a physical SSD. But I'm not sure about the syntax for the output_filename parameter. Here's what I tried:

qemu-img convert -p "D:\Virtual Machines\LinuxMint\LinuxMint-System.vdi" -O raw \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE5

But I get this error:

qemu-img: Could not open '-O': Could not open '-O': Invalid argument

Note that I do not have any partitions on the output drive - it's a bare drive.

Also, I only want to do this if I'll see a decent performance gain - so if it doesn't make a difference, then I won't bother.

Answer 1

I am not familiar with Windows qemu, on linux , the command line should be

qemu-img convert -O raw ${the_virtual_disk_image}  /dev/${the_ssd}

SO, you may have a try like

qemu-img convert -p -O raw "D:\Virtual Machines\LinuxMint\LinuxMint-System.vdi"  \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE5