vdiskmanager convert to esxi does not work

in WS 8.0.2 the help text for vdiskmanager states:

ex 6: vmware-vdiskmanager.exe -r sourceDisk.vmdk -t 4 -h esx-name.mycompany.com  -u username -f passwordfile "[storage1]/path/to/targetDisk.vmdk"

but it does not work.
Before I run the example command I do

echo Mypassword > passwordfile
on the windows-host and
mkdir /vmfs/volumes/storage1/path
on the esxi5 host