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Moving a VM to a new virtual disk

Posted: 13. Aug 2009, 00:12
by Pleek
ok, so i followed to tut here
gushy wrote:JusTiCe8 is right, I've just done this by creating a bigger disk and then copying the contents.
  • Create a new disk using Virtual Disk Manager (in VirtualBox goto File -> Virtual Disk Manager)
  • download System Rescue CD
  • set your current VM to have the new disk image as it's second hard disk and the System Rescue CD iso file as it's CD
  • boot the vm from the CD
  • at the command prompt type startx
  • when X Windows starts, type gparted in the terminal that is open on screen
  • in gparted select the windows partition and choose copy
  • select the second hard disk
  • right click on the representation of the disk and click paste
  • gparted will prompt you for the size of the disk, drag the slider to the max size
  • click apply
  • wait .......
  • when it's done right click on the disk and choose Manage Flags, and select Boot
  • exit gparted and power off the VM
  • change the VM settings to only have one disk (the new bigger disk) and deselect the iso as the CD.
  • boot the VM into your windows install on it's new bigger disk!
I don't think I've missed any steps out....
and i tried using XXClone to duplicate the drive to the larger drive. I set the drive to boot, and everything is the same for each drive while inspecting them with the System Rescue CD posted above. But the new drive still won't boot the OS. Any suggestions? thanks in advance

Craig H

Re: Moving a VM to a new virtual disk

Posted: 13. Aug 2009, 01:21
by TerryE
Looking at the XXclone description:
  • "...The backup disk can be set bootable, allowing you to simply switch hard drives and run your system from the cloned drive..."
Do you do this? Did you activate the system partition in the new disk?

Re: Moving a VM to a new virtual disk

Posted: 13. Aug 2009, 04:29
by Pleek
yes, i did set it to bootable. And if you mean set the new disk as the primary drive yes i did that too.