Can I convert a VMDK between growable and preallocated?

A VMDK file can be converted into another formate while no VM is using it. The operation will copy the old disk into a new one.

vmware-vdiskmanager -r <source-disk> -t <type> <target-disk>

Disk type can be one of:
0                 : single growable virtual disk
1                 : growable virtual disk split in 2Gb files
2                 : preallocated virtual disk
3                 : preallocated virtual disk split in 2Gb files