Port disk image into a VM?

[Neftex]

Is it possible to create disk image of a computer and run it in a VM on a different PC?

 

edit: found Disk2VHD and it seems thats exactly what i had in mind. anyone got experience doing this? any problems you encountered/heard of?

[bloodthirster]

Yes, you might need to change some things though.  For example, in Linux update the initramfs, and reconfigure the network config. 

[Neftex]

its windows 10 laptop that i want to run in VM

[bloodthirster]

I'm not that knowledge with Windows, sorry.  I'm sure someone else here can help you though. 

[erroneous]

Disk2VHD is amazing and is definitely the way to go. It's pretty straight forward to use. Having an external drive or network drive to dump the image onto is definitely the best way to go in my experience.

 

When you set the VM up, you just need to make sure that the storage devices mimic what the laptop had. Check the BIOS of the laptop and see what the SATA mode is, IDE or AHCI. Use that when you're setting up the VM.

 

Having said that, Windows is usually tied to the hardware that it's on and if you move it, it's extremely likely that the installation will have to be activated again.

[Falconevo]

The process you are looking for is called a P2V, physical to virtual.

If you want to use Hyper-V, you can use the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter tool to accomplish it relatively easy.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42497

If you want to use VMWare ESXi, you can use VMWare P2V Converter (requires you create a free account)
https://www.vmware.com/products/converter.html

[dalekphalm]

On 3/13/2019 at 5:34 PM, Neftex said:

Is it possible to create disk image of a computer and run it in a VM on a different PC?

 

edit: found Disk2VHD and it seems thats exactly what i had in mind. anyone got experience doing this? any problems you encountered/heard of?

Yes, there are various applications that do this.

 

Many VM Platforms have their own conversion tool (VMWare has one for ESXi/VMWare Player, for example).

 

They do occasionally fail to work though - often due to quirky hardware from the source computer, or an OS that is beyond help and just needs to be wiped and reloaded.

[Neftex]

@dalekphalm @Falconevo @erroneous_twain @bloodthirster

 

any idea how it would behave if the virtual machine doesnt match number of cores of the original machine?

it shouldnt be too big of a problem since upgrading/downgrading cpu on a real pc also works, right?

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 hours ago, Neftex said:

@dalekphalm @Falconevo @erroneous_twain @bloodthirster

 

any idea how it would behave if the virtual machine doesnt match number of cores of the original machine?

it shouldnt be too big of a problem since upgrading/downgrading cpu on a real pc also works, right?

core count won't matter.

 

The big problem will be getting the bootloader and drivers to work right. Normally the premade tools should work, but there may be errors depending on your exact config.

[Mikensan]

Given the tools are free and there's nothing to lose - just do it lol.

 

Only problem I can think of is if the CPUs have a huge generational gap, going from newer to older anyway. Going between an ivybridge and sandybridge - no biggy. Going from coffee lake to conroe... you might have some issues lol.