Windows 7 | HyperV

[Ongaku]

Hello, I hope all are well.

Please excuse me, It's not to be mean, but I am going to be a little short here. Mainly due to depression / anxiety. I have been trying to get... In fact I am going to paste what I recently emailed to another Tech YouTuber:

Honestly I am at wits end, and I am hoping you might be able to help. State your price. For about 5 years, on and off, I have been trying to install my windows 7 laptop as a VM through Hyper-V. I have been trying today for 5 hours, and most of yesterday. I recently upgraded to windows 11, and my computer is running much better, and a lot of things that were not working are now working again, including HyperV.

I have been trying to use the system restore function through a restore iso I have, but it can never see the restore.. I tried some recovery discs I have, got to disc 3, and then it told me language pack error or something.. Nothing is making sense, and I am running out of options, and its become extremely difficult and depressing.. I need the win7 because there are programs I used on there for music that almost don't exist anymore, and many of my songs work on there, but not on win 10 / 11.

The last thing I was going to try is using a windows 7 install disc which I do not have.. Even then I need to get the windowsupdate folder on that version so I can restore the computer...

How much would you charge to walk me through this... I don't care how much, I just want this to work finally.

Thank you for your time, and have a good day..

- Ongaku

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, as I stated I am willing to pay for a service. I know this is a forum, so if you can prove yourself via a website, or a freelance service I am willing to pay. I have reached out to people on services and I have been unable to find anyone to help with this, and all the google searches, and tech sites DO NOT have a clear answer... I have tried everything that I can, and I am looking for anyone who will be able to video chat with me and walk me through everything that I am missing to get this to work. I am willing to pay hourly, if reasonable.

Let me know..

[NinJake]

What is the name of the music software and what type of music files are we talking about here?

[MadAnt250]

14 minutes ago, Ongaku said:

Hello, I hope all are well.

Please excuse me, It's not to be mean, but I am going to be a little short here. Mainly due to depression / anxiety. I have been trying to get... In fact I am going to paste what I recently emailed to another Tech YouTuber:

Honestly I am at wits end, and I am hoping you might be able to help. State your price. For about 5 years, on and off, I have been trying to install my windows 7 laptop as a VM through Hyper-V. I have been trying today for 5 hours, and most of yesterday. I recently upgraded to windows 11, and my computer is running much better, and a lot of things that were not working are now working again, including HyperV.

I have been trying to use the system restore function through a restore iso I have, but it can never see the restore.. I tried some recovery discs I have, got to disc 3, and then it told me language pack error or something.. Nothing is making sense, and I am running out of options, and its become extremely difficult and depressing.. I need the win7 because there are programs I used on there for music that almost don't exist anymore, and many of my songs work on there, but not on win 10 / 11.

The last thing I was going to try is using a windows 7 install disc which I do not have.. Even then I need to get the windowsupdate folder on that version so I can restore the computer...

How much would you charge to walk me through this... I don't care how much, I just want this to work finally.

Thank you for your time, and have a good day..

- Ongaku

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, as I stated I am willing to pay for a service. I know this is a forum, so if you can prove yourself via a website, or a freelance service I am willing to pay. I have reached out to people on services and I have been unable to find anyone to help with this, and all the google searches, and tech sites DO NOT have a clear answer... I have tried everything that I can, and I am looking for anyone who will be able to video chat with me and walk me through everything that I am missing to get this to work. I am willing to pay hourly, if reasonable.

Let me know..

Why is the text grey?

Also, don't bother tech tubers, they are snobs that mostly do and say what they are paid to do.

 

I'm sure someone here on the forum can help ya.

[Kilrah]

Is the laptop's HDD still intact as is?

Also Hyper-V isn't a great solution for a GUI OS, VmWare Workstation is free now and will be a way better experience.

[jaslion]

Ok so basically you want to recover a VERY broken install of windows 7 to then transform it into a vm?

 

What is the software you use?

HyperV is not a good choice for this.

Does the system even boot anymore at all?

Do you have any backup clones of the disk or is this still only on the original drive? If no backups GET A SATA DOCK NOW AND CLONE IT!!!!!!

 

 

[Ongaku]

21 hours ago, jaslion said:

Ok so basically you want to recover a VERY broken install of windows 7 to then transform it into a vm?

 

What is the software you use?

HyperV is not a good choice for this.

Does the system even boot anymore at all?

Do you have any backup clones of the disk or is this still only on the original drive? If no backups GET A SATA DOCK NOW AND CLONE IT!!!!!!

 

 

No one ever said it was broken.

I take care of all my hardware.
My laptop is in almost like new shape, but I want to be after to use the music software and old VSTs on my current machine.
I made a windows backup of the computer that is readable, and able to be used for restore.

I would rather use Windows HyperV instead of using third Party Software

[Ongaku]

22 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Is the laptop's HDD still intact as is?

Also Hyper-V isn't a great solution for a GUI OS, VmWare Workstation is free now and will be a way better experience.

Laptop is perfectly fine, i recently loaded it. I just would rather be able to use that OS on my main computer instead of having to go back and forth with the laptop and my desktop.

I would rather use HyperV which is included instead of a third party.
What is the reason everyone says to use something else?

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Ongaku said:

Laptop is perfectly fine, i recently loaded it. I just would rather be able to use that OS on my main computer instead of having to go back and forth with the laptop and my desktop.

I would rather use HyperV which is included instead of a third party.
What is the reason everyone says to use something else?

`Hyper-v does graphics a good amount worse compared to other VM on the desktop solutions.

 

If you have a image, why not put in hyper-v and see if it boots. What issue are you running into?

[Kilrah]

Hyper-V doesn't have any of the comfortable things you expect from VM hosts for graphical OSes these days like dynamic display resizing, easy device hotplug etc... If you're happy with a 1024x768 display with no acceleration go for it.

 

If you want to try Hyper-V use Disk2VHD to create an image of the laptop's drive, then you'll be able to use that in a Hyper-V VM.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd

 

If that's not suitable then either convert that image for whatever other software's format or redo the imaging in the proper format.

[jaslion]

1 hour ago, Ongaku said:

Laptop is perfectly fine, i recently loaded it. I just would rather be able to use that OS on my main computer instead of having to go back and forth with the laptop and my desktop.

I would rather use HyperV which is included instead of a third party.
What is the reason everyone says to use something else?

Hyperv for a gui os is a bad time. Just use vmware or whatever hyperv is gonna be sluggish as it has NO hardware accelertion, limited resolution, passthrough issues,... its not good for a gui os

[Ongaku]

3 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Hyper-V doesn't have any of the comfortable things you expect from VM hosts for graphical OSes these days like dynamic display resizing, easy device hotplug etc... If you're happy with a 1024x768 display with no acceleration go for it.

 

If you want to try Hyper-V use Disk2VHD to create an image of the laptop's drive, then you'll be able to use that in a Hyper-V VM.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd

 

If that's not suitable then either convert that image for whatever other software's format or redo the imaging in the proper format.

I read posts saying that doesn't work. I recently tried this which is newer and similar:
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter#download

When I try to load the image it says there is no boot. When I try the restore disc, it also can't find the image. Though when I go to load drivers, and look through folders I can see my hdd in the list under my computer,  and I am able to look through the files...

I have tried many steps.. Even the accer recovery discs which when it was almost done it said that the language back was wrong or something...

 

This was why I was really trying to get win7 to work since most things were working on the pc again

I think what I need to do is buy a windows 7 disc and install it, and then run system restore from the os...

Sorry.. I am looking through the text, and can't find which software was recommended.. I am assuming VM Ware?

 

Even then It will be like ground zero, and I would need to start over and figure it all out again... I am tired of this. Which is why I am been trying to find someone to walk me through all the steps.. I have watched tons of videos, read articles, been on microsoft pages, super user pages, and everything...

 

VM is so techie, and none niche that is is hard to find a real answer.. Everything I read is back and forth, do this do that... Believe me, I have been a tech person most of my life, and the amount of things have errors when setup properly, and all other types of issues has me tapped out..

 

So that's why i am asking help.. On top of having issues with anxiety, and depression, it's hard to keep dealing with this, but I really want this accomplished.. which honestly is only step 2 in my super pc plan... Next would be to get this os 11 / 7 build into paralels on a mac, so I can have everything I would desire to use for music whether it's logic on mac, FL studio on win 11 (Yes I know its on mac now but I have used in on windows since 2003), and OLD VSTs from windows 7...

 

So, I am sorry if I am difficult, and honestly I really appreciate how everyone has actually chimed in with some options, and ideas.. But this one goes deep, and I would work better being walked through step by step.. Which I know will involve more technical information, and possibly a video chat.. But like I said, I am willing to be someone honest... I really want to get this done..

So again, thank everyone who had given some advice so far..  I am sorry if things I am saying are all over, I am just mentally broken down with this, Among other personal things I have going on.. I am honestly surprised, and sort of expected a bunch of mean comments.. so really, thank you all so much, even if its not resolved, I am really thankful to see tech people being kind, and actually trying to help...

 

TOTAL SIDE NOTE, ONLY READ IF CURIOUS ABOUT HOW WIN 11 UPDATE WAS BETTER THAN WIN10 FOR ME

------------------------------------------------------------------

Like I said i recently updated to windows 11, and the first time in years almost everything on my PC is working like it was supposed to.. It's like some of those windows 10 FORCED updates intentionally broke things, and then started showing that splash screen about updating in order to encourage me to do it since the computer was no longer fully working properly..

For people wondering, things that stopped working in windows 10: calculator disappeared and could not be reinstalled, chrome cast a tab stopped working in all versions of chrome, hyperv even stopped working and the hypervisor was turned off at some point, windows could no longer user cloud drives and most solutions would not work... EVERYTHING went back to normal or was easily fixable when I got to windows 11... My conspiracy is that those forced updates didn't accidentally break things, but it was intentional

[Ongaku]

4 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

`Hyper-v does graphics a good amount worse compared to other VM on the desktop solutions.

 

If you have a image, why not put in hyper-v and see if it boots. What issue are you running into?

when in windows 7 restore boot, it will not see the restore files no matter what i do. I think it was because I didn't put the whole restore folder that windows makes, but instead just the vhd... But I tried it the other way with the folder and it still didn't see it...

 

I tried the accer laptop recovery discs to make windows 7 clean. It got to disc three and said language pack error and stopped...

 

I do not have an actual windows 7 disc but just the restore, and recovery discs...

 

I need it to be a restore of the laptop so I can use things I already have setup on there

[Kilrah]

4 minutes ago, Ongaku said:

I read posts saying that doesn't work. I recently tried this which is newer and similar:
https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter#download

When I try to load the image it says there is no boot. When I try the restore disc, it also can't find the image.

V2V means converting an existing image so it still seems you're trying to use the image you made with the Windows backup thing, forget about that, won't be useful in any way. Reimage the drive itself with disk2vhd or other P2V method for the host program you're going to use.

[Electronics Wizardy]

4 minutes ago, Ongaku said:

when in windows 7 restore boot, it will not see the restore files no matter what i do. I think it was because I didn't put the whole restore folder that windows makes, but instead just the vhd... But I tried it the other way with the folder and it still didn't see it...

 

I tried the accer laptop recovery discs to make windows 7 clean. It got to disc three and said language pack error and stopped...

 

I do not have an actual windows 7 disc but just the restore, and recovery discs...

 

I need it to be a restore of the laptop so I can use things I already have setup on there

Do you have a vhd from the laptop? You normally want to just add that vhd as a disk in hyper-v and it should boot from it.

[Ongaku]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Do you have a vhd from the laptop? You normally want to just add that vhd as a disk in hyper-v and it should boot from it.

yes that does not work. I get an error everytime. the image though was from system restore. Should I get the image a different way?

[Ongaku]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

V2V means converting an existing image so it still seems you're trying to use the image you made with the Windows backup thing, forget about that, won't be useful in any way. Reimage the drive itself with disk2vhd or other P2V method for the host program you're going to use.

So I need to start over, and use that program on windows 7?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Ongaku said:

yes that does not work. I get an error everytime. the image though was from system restore. Should I get the image a different way?

Try using disk2vhd to make a vhd of the boot drive.

[Ongaku]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Try using disk2vhd to make a vhd of the boot drive.

Alright. I will update this once I get to that point. I am too stressed out about this now. I really thought all the steps I was taking in the like 8+ hours I was working on it.. and I am drained now. I was too worked up, exciting things I was on the cusp of getting it to work, and then it didn't..

 

So I will come back to this in about a week or so... I need to decompressed.

 

I did read about that disk2vhd before. but I didn't try it because people were saying it did not work with windows 7 because it was so old, and something was missing or something.. That's what I am talking about. I have not been able to find multiple sources about this that say the same thing.

 

Thank you very much for being awesome! I really appreciate you

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, Ongaku said:

 

I did read about that disk2vhd before. but I didn't try it because people were saying it did not work with windows 7 because it was so old, and something was missing or something.. That's what I am talking about. I have not been able to find multiple sources about this that say the same thing.

 

why not try it? Wost case it just won't work?

 

But It should work with 7, I've used older version with xp just fine.