Win7 Pro 64bit Create Image from Physical

[craigbert]

I am not sure if this question goes here not, but away we go...

I have a laptop running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and I am trying to make an image that will load. Is there a "how to" or tutorial about this somewhere?

Thanks,

Craigbert

[Perryg]

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... s/ee656415
sysprep really helps before you make the image.

[craigbert]

Perryg,

Thanks for the reply!

So I make a blank virtual drive first, and then what? How do I get the physical computer imaged to that virtual drive?

Thanks,

Craigbert

[Perryg]

Did you click the link? It pretty much explains there what you are going to do. The package in the link will create a VHD image of the physical machine and you can then install that image in VirtualBox. As I said though you should use sysprep to make it ready or you will have a ton of driver issues. See sysprep here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ee530017

[craigbert]

I did click the link, but from what I read it looked like it was just creating an empty virtual drive. I see now how I was wrong. I will follow those instructions as well as the sysprep stuff.

Thanks!

Craigbert

[Perryg]

Good luck. If all goes right it does in fact work. You may need to do it a time or two to get the hang of it but I know for a fact that it works.
When you do get the image you create a new guest and when asked if you want to create a new HDD or use an existing one you select to use an existing one and attach the image you created. Keep in mind that you may need to tweak the settings of the guest but the default is the best place to start.