Skip to main content

How do I migrate my Windows desktop to a VirtualBox VM?

I have VirtualBox 4.3.6 and True Image 2014 Premium with Universal Restore. I've read a lot about different methods but I'm not sure where to start, or what will suit my needs.


Directly from VirtualBox wiki:



Windows installations, unlike Linux, cannot easily be moved from one hardware to another. This is not just due to Microsoft's activation mechanism but the fact that the installed kernel and drivers depend on the actual hardware.



This is where Universal Restore could come in handy. It is a feature of True Image that allows backups to be restored to dissimilar hardware.


I want a complete disk image backup of the system disk created with True Image before I do anything. I will then reformat the system disk. And then, instead of reinstalling Windows or restoring it from backup on the host, I would like to have it restored VirtualBox.


Is it possible to go from TIB (True Image Backup) to VDI (Virtual Disk Image)? If not at all possible, can I image the system disk (with current Windows install) with another tool and have it create a VDI image?


Then there is the Sysinternals Disk2vhd v2.01 by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell. But it creates a VHD image, rather than VDI image. There is also a limitation on how big the image can be.


Directly from Sysinternals website:



Disk2vhd is a utility that creates VHD (Virtual Hard Disk - Microsoft's Virtual Machine disk format) versions of physical disks for use in Microsoft Virtual PC or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online.


...


Virtual PC supports a maximum virtual disk size of 127GB. If you create a VHD from a larger disk it will not be accessible from a Virtual PC VM.



My system disk is 190 GB. Is there an option inside this tool that would allow me to compress it to less than 127 GB? If not then I don't see how to do it, and I would rather not use VHD format anyway.


Can someone give me some pointers? How do I do this?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

keyboard - Is there any utility/method to change Windows key bindings to type rare chars to currently empty bindings?

I'm currently typing this post with my windows XP machine and (Spanish) keyboard, and I'd like to add some extra symbols to my text. I could open the "char map" windows utility, look for the desired symbols, and paste them. But I'd like something quickier. For example, when I'm using my OSX Mac at work, I can easily add a ©, ™, ® or similar symbols, just pressing some weird ALT-GR + G / H / J, key combinations. In my (Spanish) keyboard mapping, these combinations are empty, as they don't produce any char at all, which, on the other hand, is perfectly normal and desirable. So, I thought: Why couldn't I add some extra key mappings on top of my currently empty ALT-GR + G/J/H Keys in my Spanish keyboard, and thus, being able to quickly type these special symbols? So that's my question: Is there any utility/method to achieve that effect under windows? (My version is XP). I've even googled this for some time but no luck. I've been a long term Hot...
Post a Comment
Read more

virtualization - How to select paravirtualization interface in VirtualBox?

Given a windows 8 host system (Intel Core i5) and a Linux Fedora host, I would like to determine the optimal setting for the paravirtual interface. Options are none Default Legacy minimal Hyper-V KVM This page suggest the selection is only based on the guest system: The biggest change in VirtualBox 5.0 is the introduction of paravirtualization support, bringing higher performance and time-keeping accuracy to supported guest operating systems (Hyper-V on Windows and KVM on Linux). Is that correct? Answer The VirtualBox Manual , in the section titled Paravirtualization providers explains very clearly when each should be used (emphasis added): Minimal: Announces the presence of a virtualized environment. Additionally, reports the TSC and APIC frequency to the guest operating system. This provider is mandatory for running any Mac OS X guests. KVM: Presents a Linux KVM hypervisor interface which is recognized by Linux kernels starting with version 2.6.25. VirtualBox's implementati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Desktop reboots itself on sleep or hibernate

I have been using an ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard for main home desktop workstation, operating Windows Vista x64. This computer has right from day one not been able to enter hibernate or standby; after Windows performs its final actions and brings the machine down, it would automatically revive itself for a reboot. Updating to the second latest BIOS (1201)has not helped (the latest BIOS revision would induce video refresh problems rendering it unusable). I have been reading related discussions on incidents similar to mine to no avail of a true workable solution. They appear to be more speculative guesses rather than actual knowledge on the inner workings of motherboard hardware. Does anybody have any electronic engineering experience on PC energy-saving standards to provide a more informed opinion how to go about getting this to work? More stories: this motherboard could not even reboot properly the first thing i used it. It was due to refresh rate of the onboard GPU, which had no influe...
Post a Comment
Read more

Excel 2010: if( , , "") not treated the same as blank for pivot table group by date

I'm trying to group by date in an Excel 2010 pivot table. The column with dates (i.e., the one want to group by), should be the latest date of 2 other columns if neither is null, or blank. i.e., with a formula like: =IF(AND(A4 "", B4 ""), MAX(A4,B4), "") Normally, this "" in the IF() formula acts the same as an empty cell. In this case, it is preventing me from grouping by date in the Pivot Table. If I filter the date column by (Blanks) , then clear the contents of all those cells, then the pivot table does group by date ok. i.e., "" is not being treated the same as an empty cell.
Post a Comment
Read more