Files with the .VMDK extension contain data in the form of a virtual disk representing the contents of the VMware virtual machine hard disk. Access to the VMDK drive is possible in the same way as access to the physical drive using virtualization software. Configuring a drive, for example its fixed or growing capacity, can be done using the Virtual Disk Manager utility. Earlier versions of the software used the .DSK extension.

VMDK file naming can be complex. The main disk file is simply name.vmdk, but can be saved in parts where each file-part has the name-s[