VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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yupthatguy
Posts: 73
Joined: 4. Jul 2015, 07:48

VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Post by yupthatguy »

I am on Ubuntu 20.04, dual booting with Win10, running Vbox6.1. I booted from LiveUSB and created a ~108GB .img of my Win10 partition via the gnome-disks tool.

In linux, I used `

Code: Select all

VBoxManage convertdd /media/user/externalHD/Win10/Win10Legit.img /home/user/internalHD/Win10/Win10Legit.vdi
` to convert my `.

Code: Select all

img
` to `

Code: Select all

.vdi
` format.

Conversion completes w/o error:

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Converting from raw image file="/media/user/externalHD/Win10/Win10Legit.img" to file="/home/user/internalHD/Win10/Win10Legit.vdi"...
    Creating dynamic image with size 108062048256 bytes (103056MB)...

In Vbox6.1 I create a new Win10 vm and attach my my coverted `

Code: Select all

Win10Legit.vdi
` file.

**Problem:**
No error messgae. Just a blank screen with cursor

How do I troubleshoot this?
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Post by mpack »

What's to troubleshoot? The procedure is garbage I'm afraid. All you did was copy a bare partition to another drive, albeit a virtual drive. A bootable disk requires a boot sector, a partition table, and Win10 requires a partition containing the boot manager. You provided none of that.
yupthatguy
Posts: 73
Joined: 4. Jul 2015, 07:48

Re: VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Post by yupthatguy »

Sorry to offend your sensibilities with my noobish bumbling.. so I guess the that I should be ask is... Is how can create bootable disk image of of Win10 partition? Any advice appreciated.

thanks
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Post by mpack »

That's a big ask even for an expert. Also you have not said whether UEFI is involved, as that would mean GPT partitions which are very different from MBR.

An additional complication is that I don't know if it can be done without zapping the activation: obviously the VM is a separate PC that requires a separate license.

In principle the procedure would be to image a whole disk of a working system, chop it up into the pieces I mentioned above, combine them using a VMDK descriptor, and in the same descriptor you replace the Win10 main partition with your partition image.

Whether this will work I don't know. It would have worked in XP, but Windows since Win7 days uses a boot manager, which makes life a lot more complicated for things like this.
yupthatguy
Posts: 73
Joined: 4. Jul 2015, 07:48

Re: VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Post by yupthatguy »

I have a laptop that dual boots Win10 and Ubuntu 20.04. I want to create a bootable image of my Windows partition (with license) so that I can run in ubuntu desktop vbox6.1 As for Uefi and all the bells and whistles I don't know.. hence my posting in a support forum :D
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Post by mpack »

An image of an activated win10 does not stay activated. Activation is tied to the hardware - most modern PCs have a specific windows digital license stored on the motherboard flash. The VM is a different PC with different hardware and no Windows digital license. In any case I said that this was an aspect that concerned me - without trying it myself then I don't know if the problems are real.

Speaking about this being a support forum: in fact this forum is for discussing problems with VirtualBox support on various Linux hosts, whereas your question is about how to boot a Windows guest. I'll move the topic to "Windows Guests".

As for "uefi and all the bells and whistles", I deliberately chose jargon words for my previous post to highlight that there are a lot of things you must understand before tackling something like this. I consider myself an expert, but I would not try this. One tip: make sure you do a whole disk backup first.
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Post by scottgus1 »

Windows 10 VB and native, maybe viewtopic.php?f=7&t=98410
yupthatguy
Posts: 73
Joined: 4. Jul 2015, 07:48

Re: VBoxManage IMG to VDI Conversion

Post by yupthatguy »

Thanks for this... I will do my homework and give it a try... :-)
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