N00b question.

[Jaymond]

Hi there,

I'm very new to Virtualbox, and VM's in general, and I'm just coming to grips with what can and cannot be done.

I'm currently running XP on my laptop as host, with a Windows 7 guest.

I'm planning to reformat and run Win7 as my real OS, but I'd like as little downtime as possible, so I figured I'd try to streamline the process by doing it virtually, first.

I wouId like to build up my Win7 VM with all apps installed etc. so that it is running smooth... is it possible then to somehow take that image and drop it onto my freshly formatted HDD, to run as a real system?

thanks for any info.

Jay.

[Sasquatch]

Possible: yes. Advised: no.
Not only will you get a direct activation question due to hardware changes, but the system might not run with optimal performance due to drivers from the virtual environment that are still installed.

[mpack]

I have to disagree with Sasquatch: migrating an image from one hardware platform to another is something I've now done several times with no problems or downsides whatever. However I have not tried it with Win7 and hence don't know if that presents new problems. The end result of this process in fact runs smoother than a fresh install because I already spent time tweaking it for performance on the source platform. Yes a whole bunch of drivers will be invalid, but Windows is designed to cope with changing hardware, at best the transition is transparent, at worst you would have to go into device manager later and tidy things up by manually deleting the unwanted "broken" devices.

If you installed VBox Guest Additions then I would of course recommend that you uninstall those before imaging the source drive. For an imaging tool I would recommend you invest in a copy of Acronis TrueImage, and I also recommend that you create the image in a network shared folder (shared with the host) on a removable drive (mounting a USB drive directly in the VM is also possible, but many people have problems doing that - the shared folder route is simpler).

On activation: yes, you will need to reactivate. This should be no problem for you provided you intend to stop using the virtual version.

[Sasquatch]

You can even skip the VM activation. That allows you to run Windows for 30 days without limitations. When you transfer the image to the bare metal, then activate the system to only have one activation noted at MS' side.

[Jaymond]

Thanks for the info so far.

Just to clarify, my laptop is my only machine right now. This means that the guest VM image will eventually be the primary OS on this machine.

Does this mean that there will be no driver issues as the hardware stays the same?

thanks in advance.

J

[Perryg]

I think the first thing that you should figure out is where are you going to put this image?
If this is your only computer do you have an external drive that will hold an image as big as what Windows 7 will be?
And yes I believe there will be driver issues since the actual computer is going to be different then the virtual.
This is not insurmountable in itself but you will need to consider it.

Edit: I am just saying the same thing that Mpack said but it seems you are not understanding.

[Jaymond]

Got it.

Yes I have an external drive with plenty of space, so that shouldn't be a problem...

[ngh]

Just an alternative thought.

How I work at present on my desktop.

I am 40+ female an have been used to the windows environment - but now use LINUX almost exclusivley with windows guests.

Using Ubuntu as my base OS with windows guests in Xp and Win7 and vista (all legal purchases)

I use a wide screen with half of it taken up my a browser in my Host OS and the Guest OS taking up the other half of the screen.

As I often do internet research for genalogy my genealogy package is windows based and I use shared drives to both OS to store my data - so my data is not virtual even though it is created in the virtual environment.

I love virutualization. So as a alternative I would suggest you try this first - Ubuntu is free and extremely easy to install. Totally up to you but it works well for me.

Also on my new Win7 based laptop installed Vbox and crashed my windows PC - so think of that as well when deciding although I have never tried vbox with XP as the host.

ngh