Is it possible to boot a physical disk in a virtual machine?

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sibdc
Posts: 2
Joined: 24. Nov 2021, 21:02

Is it possible to boot a physical disk in a virtual machine?

Post by sibdc »

I have an old computer that the motherboard is faulty but the hard drive is intact. I would like to start a virtual machine on the hard drive to run the windows contained on the hard drive. Is this possible and if so how to proceed?
scottgus1
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Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: Is it possible to boot a physical disk in a virtual machine?

Post by scottgus1 »

It is, it's called Raw Disk Access. But it is an expert-only feature that we don't try to explain, because a small mistake can destroy your computer's or the drive's data.

It is better to use Disk2VHD to clone the entire drive, while it's connected to a USB adapter to the host computer, to a VHD-format disk file. Then use Mpack's CloneVDI to turn the VHD into a VDI (CloneVDI can clone the USB-attached disk to a VDI directly, too, if you want to cut a step).

Once the VDI is ready, make a new VM as closely as possible to the original OS, and use the VDI file for the VM's disk.

This is called a Physical-to-Virtual, or P2V. Web-search

{the old computer's OS} P2V site:forums.virtualbox.org

to get ideas and error help, and post back if you have issues you can't fix.
sibdc
Posts: 2
Joined: 24. Nov 2021, 21:02

Re: Is it possible to boot a physical disk in a virtual machine?

Post by sibdc »

Thanks that can solve my problem. I will try it.
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