I have cloned VMs before and transferred them to physical HDD. I think one misunderstanding is that people, and the OP, assume that linux, like windows, installs only the necessary drivers when installing. AFAIK, linux doesn't just install the necessary drivers, it installs ALL the drivers. Meaning that the cloned image will work on most/any machine.
I explained how I do this in this post:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...14#post5656514
Copy and paste from that post:
I'll give you a step by step:
1) Create your VM.
2) Create a virtual HDD to use to store the "image".
3) Attach the virtual HDD to the VM and boot up, now create a folder in the virtual HDD for the image. I name mine like "1610xubu011517x64" so I know the date and the architecture.
4) Shut down again and attach the Clonezilla ISO.
5) Boot to Clonezilla and image the VM.
6) Now you have to move the "image" from the virtual HDD to an actual partition so you can get at it from clonezilla.
So shut down and remove the clonezilla ISO and reboot to the VM and move the "image", you're going to need to install VB guest tools to be able to "see" you machines partitions.
7) Now you're going to need to put a clonezilla ISO onto a USB stick. I recommend using Parted Magic as it's got clonezilla and the ability to install grub where you want it. The new version of Parted Magic is sold for $9 but you can find older versions that work for free:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/deta...ted_magic.html
8) A couple of things to keep in mind while working with clonezilla, you can only restore the image to a partition that is at least as big or bigger than the original. And you've got to make sure the names of the files match up to the new partition. I've included a pic of the files in a image folder: The 2 files that are important are the ones named "sda1.ext4-ptcl-img.gz.aa" and the one named "parts" Make sure the "sda1" in the first file name is the name of the partition you're restoring to. If not, change that part of the name. The second file named "parts", open it up and change it to the correct partition. In all probability you're going to find the file names don't need changing.
9) Now that you've got the image restored to your preferred partition, now in Parted Magic go to the start button and scroll up to "Grub doctor" or whatever. I can't remember what it's called in that menu, However its obvious.
Now you're good to go. Reboot.
And, no I've never had problems with drivers, however I've only done this with ubuntu, other distros might not be as easy.