Free alternative for backing up VMs Posted on September 1, 2011September 1, 2011 Take a look at this: http://serverfault.com/questions/52327/copy-vmware-vmdk-files-while-vm-is-running http://sanbarrow.com/vmdk-basics.html http://computer-forensics.sans.org/blog/2010/09/28/digital-forensics-copy-vmdk-vmware-virtual-environment/