How to Convert Virtual Machine to Physical Machine (Best Way)

Converting a virtual machine to a physical computer is more widely used than ever. The universal restore function in AOMEI Backupper supports to do it with simple operations.

By @Lily Last Updated February 20, 2024

About Virtual Machine

With the development of networking environment, virtual machine is widely used by people, especially enterprise users. It allows users to do many dangerous things (which may cause big damage to computer) without worrying about the safety of physical computer. It is useful in many situations. For example, developers can test apps in VMs to see whether their applications will work on a new OS.

Virtual machine has a lot of software like VirtualBox, VMware Workstation, etc. You need to install the software first to build a VM. Sometimes you may want to convert virtual machine to physical computer. How to do it?

Best tool to convert virtual machine to physical

Specialized backup and restore software - AOMEI Backupper Professional can not only help you convert virtual machine to physical (V2P) but also convert physical machine to virtual (P2V), even virtual machine to virtual machine (V2V). Following are some highlighted features of this software:

  • You can use it to backup system, partition, disk, or single files.
  • You can restore computer to an earlier date with the backup image. Its Universal Restore feature even allows you to restore system to a different computer without boot issues.
  • It enables you to make bootable media to boot a crashed computer.
  • It also offers the clone feature to help you upgrade hard drive to SSD without reinstalling OS.

It has different editions for different users. For PC users, you can use the Professional edition to perform V2P migration. For Server users, you can use the Server edition to work between your virtual machine and physical computer.

Here I'll take AOMEI Backupper Professional as an example to show you how to convert virtual machine to physical machine in Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11. Free download AOMEI Backupper right now!

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Convert VM to physical with AOMEI Backupper

Speaking of converting virtual machine to physical computer, it is as same as doing a universal restore. Take converting VMware image to physical machine as an example. Here are the specific steps for you.

Preliminary work

1. Connect a USB drive to your computer. Then, set in the VM console to make the USB flash drive detected by the VM. 

2. Install and run AOMEI Backupper on your virtual machine. Click Tools > Create Bootable Media to make a bootable USB drive.

3. Click Backup > System Backup to create a system backup image of your virtual machine. You can store the system image on the bootable USB (as long as the USB drive has enough capacity) or network location.

Virtual to physical conversion

Let's say you have saved the system image on the bootable USB drive. Follow the steps below to perform V2P migration.

Step 1. Shutdown the physical computer and boot it from the bootable USB.

Step 2. AOMEI Backupper will run automatically once your computer boots up. Select Restore and Select Image File. Then, choose the system backup image on your USB drive.

Step 3. Select Restore this system backup and tick Restore system to other location. Then, click Next.

Step 4. Select the destination partition to receive the restored data and click Next.

Step 5. You'll move to the page to confirm the information of your restore. Tick Universal Restore to ensure the system is bootable after restoration. If there is no problem, click Start Restore to execute the operations.

✍ Tips: * If the destination partition is on an SSD, we highly recommend you check SSD Alignment, because it will optimize SSD so that it will give a better performance after restoring. * The steps also apply to converting VirtualBox machine to physical machine.

Recommend: Backup virtual and physical machines to prevent data loss

Backing up virtual and physical machines is to create copies of data and files on them against data loss. Physical and virtual machines store lots of important files and data. But data disasters occur at any time. With a data backup, you can easily retrieve your data when your devices have a hardware or software failure, or get attacked.

To back up all virtual and physical environments quickly and easily, you can choose AOMEI Cyber Backup, which is a robust data backup solution. With a user-friendly interface that integrates various backup features, you can centrally backup all VMware, Hyper-V virtual machines, and Windows computers.

  • Centrally backup and restore all device data.
  • Support saving backup images on the local drive, NAS drive, or network share.
  • Automatic Backup to run backup tasks daily, weekly, or monthly automatically.

Download this powerful backup software now to try it out!

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Step 1. Click Source Device VMware Add VMware Device to add the vCenter or Standalone ESXi host. You need to enter the IP address, username and password of it.

Step 2. Create a new backup task.

  • Click Backup Task on the left menu bar and select Backup Task Create New Task.

  • Choose a Backup Type according to your needs. Here we choose Disk Backup for showing.

  • Edit Task Name based on your need.
  • Then you can set backup content, target, schedule and other settings. After that, click Start Backup button.

Verdict

AOMEI Backupper Professional is really a good backup and restore software for Windows PC users. Besides converting virtual machine to physical machine, it enables you to convert physical machine to virtual machine like VirtualBox and VMware without effort. Download it now to have a try!

If you want to migrate virtual machine to multiple physical computers, you may choose AOMEI Backupper Technician or Technician Plus edition and use the AOMEI Image Deploy tool to deploy system image.