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Can VB make a VM of a Win. host?
Posted: 23. Aug 2012, 19:10
by Advice Pro
The host is Win. 7.
Re: Can VB make a VM of a Win. host?
Posted: 23. Aug 2012, 19:30
by Perryg
See Advanced storage configuration in your manual. Read all warnings. Have really good backups.
Re: Can VB make a VM of a Win. host?
Posted: 24. Aug 2012, 10:44
by mpack
Are you asking about a physical to virtual migration (a.k.a P2V) ?
If yes, then :-
The literal answer to your question is no - VirtualBox does not include any P2V tools, so VB cannot make anything like that.
The technical answer is that P2V is quite possible using appropriate third party tools. Basically any backup software that uses disk imaging can do the job, though you may struggle to get Windows to boot on the radically different virtual hardware. I've done P2V with XP, but not with Win7. Disk2VHD is a very handy tool for this job, though I would convert the resulting disk from VHD to something more reliable, such as VDI.
The legal answer is that if you are talking about P2V'ing your current host Win7 then it may be a license violation - which will cause problems for activation if you try to keep both images going.