How to Backup and Virtualize Windows 8.1 from Old Laptop HDD

[Adit Gadkary]

Hey everyone,

 

I have a Hard Disk Drive with Windows 8.1 32-bit OS installed on it, which originally came from my old laptop – a favorite of mine. Unfortunately, the laptop is nearing its end, and I don't want to subject it to further strain.

Here are the two things I'm hoping to achieve:

1. I want to create a backup of the entire HDD, either as a single file or multiple files, so that in the future, I can restore the old HDD from this backup onto a new device.

2. Using my SATA to USB adapter, I aim to run the OS installed on the HDD within a virtual machine on a new laptop.

Could you please provide guidance on how to accomplish these tasks?

Thank you!"

[Electronics Wizardy]

Does the laptop boot? If yes I'd use disk2vhd. If no, I'd boot it into a linux live disk and make a image via dd. 

 

Then you can take that image and boot from it in a vm.

[Adit Gadkary]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Does the laptop boot? If yes I'd use disk2vhd. If no, I'd boot it into a linux live disk and make a image via dd. 

 

Then you can take that image and boot from it in a vm.

Yes it does boot but due to it's age its very slow

 

[Adit Gadkary]

29 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Does the laptop boot? If yes I'd use disk2vhd. If no, I'd boot it into a linux live disk and make a image via dd. 

 

Then you can take that image and boot from it in a vm.

i have a new laptop with zorin os ( Ubuntu Based Linux ) on it , i can connect to it and make a copy but is ther any windows app that is free and can do the same iso img using hdd ? cuse i dont have much space on it

[Adit Gadkary]

Ok guys,so I have obtained a .img file of around 150 gbs . Now now can I book it in a vm ??

[TSNH]

On 5/3/2024 at 8:19 PM, Adit Gadkary said:

Ok guys,so I have obtained a .img file of around 150 gbs . Now now can I book it in a vm ??

.img isn't technically a format of virual machine drives, something like .vmdk, .vhd or.vdi would be a safer bet.

 

Vmware workstation (idk about virtualbox or hyper-v) does not support mounting .img files as disks, but as you already have that image you can try:

1. Mounting it as a floppy disk and booting from it (vmware does allow you to mount .img as a floppy). idk if this will work as floppies usually aren't 150GB and are not partitioned the way hard disks are, but who knows.
2. renaming .img to .vhd

I that doesn't work you can check if the program that you are using to create images also supports .vmdk, .vhd or.vdi or try to find a converter of some kind.

 

The most official and proper way of doing all of this would be using a toll like this one:

https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/details?downloadGroup=VCENTER_STANDALONE_660&productId=1515&rPId=116424

It's free but Vmware requires creating an account to download from their website (which sucks) so you can try finding it somewhere else, just make sure the digital signature is right.

[Egon3]

On 5/5/2024 at 4:43 AM, TSNH said:

The most official and proper way of doing all of this would be using a toll like this one:

https://customerconnect.vmware.com/downloads/details?downloadGroup=VCENTER_STANDALONE_660&productId=1515&rPId=116424

It's free but Vmware requires creating an account to download from their website (which sucks) so you can try finding it somewhere else, just make sure the digital signature is right.

Your timing sharing this is unfortunate as VMware's Customer Connect site just got migrated over the weekend to Broadcom. I assume your link was for the VMware vCenter Converter? If so, here is a newer link to the Broadcom support site: https://support.broadcom.com/group/ecx/productfiles?subFamily=VMware vCenter converter&displayGroup=Standard&release=6.6.0&os=&servicePk=203348&language=EN 

Again, you unfortunately need to create an account but it is free.

 

Although we haven't needed to use it to do a P2V (Physical to Virtual) in a few years, we have used it at my work and it worked well.