Cannot create the disk image "windows.vdi": VERR_ALREADY_EXI

[Ogami musashi]

Hello,

I'm runing a linux host, and would like to convert a physical windows 7 (installed first) to a VM.

I'm following the virtualBox tutorial on wiki.archlinux
The plan is to first create a windows disk image on an external drive (fdisk says it is NTFS/exFAT) using

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{ dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 count=$(cat /sys/block/sda/sda1/start) ; dd if=/dev/sda2 bs=512 count=$(cat /sys/block/sda/sda2/size) ; } | VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin windows.vdi $(( ($(cat /sys/block/sda/sda1/start) + $(cat /sys/block/sda/sda2/size)) * 512 ))

However when trying the creation of windows image i get stuck with this error:

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Error code VERR_ALREADY_EXISTS at /build/virtualbox/src/VirtualBox-4.3.28/src/VBox/Storage/VDI.cpp(607)....Cannot create the disk image "windows.vdi": VERR_ALREADY_EXISTS

The VERR_ALREADY_EXISTS error seems to have many manifestation so i can't find an already existing post with a solution.

Can somebody help me?

Thanks

[mpack]

You say you are running a Linux host, so which Win7 machine are you trying to P2V? Is this a different host, or another partition on the same host PC? If it's the former then Disk2VHD would be a much better choice as a disk imager than some creaking old copy of dd.

VERR_DISK_EXISTS suggests to me that you already have a VM called "Windows", and the folder already contains a file called "Windows.vdi". Not so?

I'm not at all sure how well VirtualBox will cope with translating a byte stream "stdin" to a block base output. It certainly gets my hackles up, but a Linux expert would be better placed to comment.

Finally, I'm not big on parsing dd command lines... but do I gather that you are trying to clone the "sda2" partition? If so then resulting disk image will be non-bootable. P2V'd disk images need to be whole disk images.

[Ogami musashi]

Hello,
EDIT: ah i found the windows.vdi! don't know why i didn't find it in the first place.

Now you're remark about not booting kind of bugs me, here is my configuration:

The host for the windows VM would resides on the same machine yes. i have the partition that way( knowing that windows was installed first then dual booted with linux):

sda1: 100 system volume information (containing the MBR if i'm not mistaken)
sda2: the windows installation partition

...
sda3..sda5: Linux partitions

sdb: the external disk on which i wish to install the VM





I'll try Disk2VHD and/or VMware converter

[mpack]

Well, as I said, what you are doing would not work anyway, since "sda2" is not a disk (it's only a partition), and therefore an image of it will not be a disk either.

You need to image the entire disk, and then use a partition manager to eliminate unwanted partitions from it. Or, perhaps smarter imaging tools are now available for Linux - the crudeness of dd for this task is a large part of your problem. You want a tool that images the entire disk, but lets you skip partitions, and which creates a modern image format such as VDI or VMDK.

[Ogami musashi]

Yes you're probably right! I'll try dd (i edited my post, there was indeed an existing windows.vdi) and if it doesn't boot then i'll try converters yes!

Thank you!