Convert your Windows computer into a virtual machine
Posted on October 10, 2009 at 5:31 am
I’ve previously written about how to create a virtual machine using VMware and how to install Ubuntu in VirtualBox and install Ubuntu in Virtual PC 2007. This is all great if you want to start from scratch and install a completely new OS such as Windows, Linux, etc.
However, what if you want to simply take a snapshot of your current operating system and virtualize it? Though I have talked about converting a physical server into a virtual server, I have not yet discussed how to take a consumer OS, such as Windows XP and convert that into your own virtual machine.
Luckily, there is a really cool program that will allow you to turn any PC into a virtual machine in just a few minutes!
Disk2vhd is a nifty little program from Sysinternals that will convert your entire PC into a Microsoft Virtual PC virtual machine. Of course, it will only run on Microsoft Virtual PC, but that’s fine since it’s now free.
What’s cool about this program is that it doesn’t require any installation, it just runs as a stand-alone program. This also means you can copy it to your USB flash drive and run the program on any computer you like!
Secondly, it uses the integrated Snapshot feature of Windows so that it can copy the entire disk while the program is running in Windows! There is no need to restart the computer, boot from some disk, etc, etc like many other backup utilities require.
When creating the virtual machine, try to save the VHD file onto a separate drive than the one you are converting. An external hard drive would be perfect.
When you launch the program, it detects your disks automatically. Just select the drives you want to include in your virtual machine and click Create! That’s it! Once the file has been created, download Microsoft Virtual PC and load up your newly created VHD file.
This is also a great way to create a backup of your computer to use later on for testing purposes or whatever you like. Note that Virtual PC supports a maximum virtual disk size of 127GB, so if you have a bigger hard drive, you won’t be able to access it via Virtual PC.
Overall, it’s a really useful tool for anyone who wants to either create a backup of their computer at its current state or who wants to virtualize their computer for testing purposes. Enjoy! [via Lifehacker]
» Filed Under Free Software Downloads
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you can also load a VHD into Virtualbox ( http://www.virtualbox.org/ )
Cheers, thanks for the tip. Virtualizing Windows was easy.
Can you use this tool to convert offline Windows XP installation to virtual machine, eg. your cousin’s computer croaked and there is a program he must access so you plug in the drive into your computer and convert that into .vhd so you can bring his machine back to life as a virtual machine.
Sorry, but this utility does not work for me! I have generated several VHD images from a working Windows XP Professional system. Disk2VHD generates the VHD image file OK; but when the image file is given to the Windows 7 Virtual PC Manager as “an existing virtual hard disk” the following error message is displayed “Cannot attach the virtual hard disk to the virtual machine.
Check the values provided and try again”. Which is highly unhelpful! The VHD image is accessible when attached to the Windows 7 Disk Management; but the Virtual PC Manager must presumablly, have more strict validation rules. Can you tell me how to overcome this problem?
I am using Windows 7 Ultimate and have several Virtual PCs running OK. But I need to convert my existing XP images. None of these work under Virtual PC; presumably because the system32 drivers required by the system used direct on the hardware and not present in the virtual PC environment. I had hoped this software would overcome thta problem…
More information since my last post.
The problem detailed above (item 4) was because although the logical partition I converted using disk2vhd was less than the 127GB limit imposed by MS Virtual PC, other partitions on the same physical drive, pushed the whole VHD beyond 127GB. (i.e it builds all partitions on the source disc, even those are not needed).
I got around this problem by using WHS to put the physical XP system on a smaller hard drive, and then running disk2vhd again.
That solved that problem, but Virtual PC still fails to boot from the VHD file built by disk2vhd.
I can get the system to start booting in Windows Safe Mode but it just hangs whilst loading the driver files found in \windows\system32\drivers.
I currently have a call out with Microsoft for their input.
What if I have a dual boot setup? Can I convert each OS into it’s own virtual machine? I’m guessing it can since it lets you choose a volume/partition correct? Thanks.
A comment on Colin Walters’ post, he was hitting the 127GB limit imposed by MS Virtual PC. I just overcame that by using Disk2vhd and then creating a virtual machine using VirtualBox http://www.virtualbox.org instead of MS Virtual PC. Works great.