Making a virutal machine out of a networked computer

kylejwx · Post by **kylejwx** » 4. Mar 2008, 23:03

I have heard that it is possible to create a virtual machine out of a real computer. For instance, I want to do some messing with my family's XP Home desktop but i can't take the risk to of doing that on the real machine. So I want to virtualize that machine on my laptop in order to conduct the testing with out messing anything up. I have been told that VirtualBox can allow me to do that. How do I do that? Are there any help documents that can lead me through the proccess?

Post by **eiffel56** » 5. Mar 2008, 00:16

If you are running VirtualBox on a Linux host, its quite simple.

Plug the HDD in your computer, and copy the entire disk in an image on your computer using dd.

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dd if=/dev/realharddisk of=image.raw

After that, you can convert that RAW file to a VDI file,

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vditool DD image.raw image.vdi

You can use the resulting VDI file directly in VirtualBox.

Or you can use it directly by using the loopback device and a rawvmdk

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losetup /dev/loop0 image.raw
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename image.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/loop0

You can use the resulting VMDK file directly in VirtualBox, do not delete the raw file for this solution.

Since your new guest is Windows XP, it may not boot(just a bluescreen at startup). Windows does not like if you change the hardware without reinstalling it. This issue is related to Windows itself, and can't be fixed in VirtualBox.

If your host is Windows, it may be difficult. There is a DD windows port somewhere, you'll have to use it. Or maybe that "WinImage", but I don't really know.

Post by **S.SubZero** » 5. Mar 2008, 01:05

As said, moving XP from one environment to another is painful.

One other problem is going to be activation. Even if you get past all the driver and hardware change issues, XP will likely deactivate and since you apparently plan on running the original PC *and* the new virtual one, the virtual XP can't be activated (legally). You can only use one key on one PC, real or virtual.

kylejwx · Post by **kylejwx** » 5. Mar 2008, 16:52

Yeah, my host in this case is my Windows Vista laptop. Sounds like it is going to be quite a challenge. Maybe someday I will figure it out. Thanks for the help!