VMWare has just released VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0 this week. Among the all the new features, ”Optimized disk and partition alignment and cluster size change” is the one I considered the most important! This means V2V your existing unaligned Windows Server 2003 is no longer mission impossible and no need to pay those alternative ones who charge a premium for this simple task.

Also, the new version supports more 3rd parties vendors:

Convert third-party image or virtual machine formats such as Parallels Desktop, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery, Norton Ghost, Acronis, StorageCraft, Microsoft Virtual Server or Virtual PC, and Microsoft Hyper-V Server virtual machines to VMware virtual machines.

Enable centralized management of remote conversions of multiple physical servers or virtual machines simultaneously.

Ensure conversion reliability through quiesced snapshots of the guest operating system on the source machine before data migration.

Enable non-disruptive conversions through hot cloning, with no source server downtime or reboot.
Third-party backup images and virtual machines:

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and Microsoft Virtual PC 2007
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 and Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2
Hyper-V Server virtual machines that run Windows guest operating systems
Hyper-V Server virtual machines that run Linux guest operating systems
Acronis True Image Echo 9.1, 9.5, and Acronis True Image 10.0, 11.0 (Home product)
Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (formerly LiveState Recovery) 6.5, 7.0, 8.0 and 8.5, LiveState Recovery 3.0 and 6.0 (only .sv2i files)
Norton Ghost version 10.0, 11.0, 12.0, 13.0, and 14.0 (only .sv2i files)
Parallels Desktop 2.5, 3.0, and 4.0
StorageCraft ShadowProtect 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2