Creating a OVF

[DaveKreines]

This may be fairly basic - sorry; I'm a beginner with VirtualBox. Is it possible to create a virtual image (OVF) of a machine that is NOT yet running in VirtualBox? Specifically, I would like to take an existing Windows XP machine and run it in VirtualBox running on a different Windows 7 machine. Possible? How? Thanks!

Dave

[mpack]

Are you asking how to make an OVF, or are you asking how best to move a VM between host machines? On VirtualBox the latter does not involve the former.

You create an OVF using the File|Export menu option. Great if you are thinking of switching to VMWare.

If all you want to do is copy a VM to another VirtualBox installation, esp with the same host OS family (e.g XP and Win7 are both Windows, moving to Linux or Mac would be trickier) then just copy the VM folder. Using Machine|Add on dest system.

[DaveKreines]

Thanks - I was probably less than clear. I want to take an existing XP machine and move it to a virtual environment. So, as I understand it, I can't use File Export to create the OVF because I am not yet running under VirtualBox. I have a Windows 7 machine with VirtualBox installed, and now I want to run the old XP system on that virtual environment. So I guess my question is how to get the existing XP system into the virtual environment. Does that make any more sense?

Dave

[mpack]

Yes, I understand now.

OVF is a way of packaging an existing VM, so you can forget OVF.

What you want to do is called a P2V migration (P2V == Physical to Virtual). Internal search does not index short words, so use Google with search terms "P2V and site:forums.virtualbox.org". You should find plenty of info.

ps. Moving this thread to "Windows Guests", since it is not a generic discussion about the VirtualBox software.