virtualbox.org

Greetings,

I am currently running Windows 7 Pro. I want to switch to a Linux distribution (probably MX Linux). But I do not want to lose access to my Windows OS and apps, etc -- at least not until I have spent time getting MX Linux to take over everything that I was doing with Windows.

Is there a way to create an ISO of my currently installed Windows system, and then install/run that ISO as a guest on my soon-to-be Linux host?

In other words, after installing MX Linux, followed by Virtual Box, I want to be able to run my Windows 7 system, with all of my installed apps.

Is there a process for doing this?

Thank you.

You need to understand some terminology, otherwise you'll never understand the process.

First of all, "ISO" is just an alternative filesystem (ISO-9660), just like FAT and exFAT are also alternate filesystems recognized by Windows. In this case ISO-9660 is the filesystem used by data CD/DVD/BluRay.

Copying the Windows 7 files from an NTFS partition to an ISO-9660 filesystem will accomplish absolutely nothing, unless of course you were making a BluRay backup (because that's what that process is).

A bootable OS installer will not materialize out of thin air just because you chose that filesystem.

To migrate Windows to a VM you "simply" need to image the hard drive, retaining its current NTFS filesystem, and "restore" that image into a VM. There are many tools that can do the job, but the easiest in this context will be the ones that store the image in a recognized virtual format already, e.g. Disk2VHD and VMWare Converter. Remember that you must always image the entire disk. Then you create a VM around the disk image.

mpack wrote: There are many tools that can do the job, but the easiest in this context will be the ones that store the image in a recognized virtual format already, e.g. Disk2VHD and VMWare Converter.

Disk2vhd:
It has a 127 GB size limit. So that rules that out for me.

VMware vCenter Converter Standalone:
To download, you need to create an account, and there is a link to contact their sales team (and they do not list the price -- so it is probably pricey). I would rather use an open-source freeware solution (or just freeware) if possible.

mpack, you wrote:

mpack wrote: There are many tools that can do the job...

Would you please provide an alternative?

Thank you.

Take a look at that place you saw about the 127GB limit, it apparently only applies if you plan to use the VHD in Microsoft's old VirtualPC. Should be 2TB limit for regular virtualizers like Virtualbox.

If you can take the hard drive out of the computer and attach it to another Windows PC, you can use Mpack's CloneVDI to make a VDI file instead of a VHD. Virtualbox uses VDIs best. See the instructions.

Another option, since the transfer of your Windows 7 will cause a reactivation anyway, is to fresh-install Windows 7 in a new guest and transfer your data & reinstall programs. It'll be peppier as a fresh install.

scottgus1 wrote:Take a look at that place you saw about the 127GB limit, it apparently only applies if you plan to use the VHD in Microsoft's old VirtualPC. Should be 2TB limit for regular virtualizers like Virtualbox.

Thank you for clearing that up.

scottgus1 wrote:If you can take the hard drive out of the computer and attach it to another Windows PC, you can use Mpack's CloneVDI to make a VDI file instead of a VHD. Virtualbox uses VDIs best. See the instructions.

This would be ideal. But I have 4 disks running as a hardware RAID 0, and it is difficult to get at them inside my case. Even if I did remove them, the alternate PC would not see them as a single disk, with 3 partitions, that the RAID controller presents to the OS. This was a good suggestion, but not for my circumstances.

scottgus1 wrote:Another option, since the transfer of your Windows 7 will cause a reactivation anyway, is to fresh-install Windows 7 in a new guest and transfer your data & reinstall programs. It'll be peppier as a fresh install.

This would involve not overlooking any applications, and crossing my fingers that I saved each and every install file and product key for every app that I purchased. It would involve things like figuring out how to load back all of my e-mail into Outlook, etc. I would rather avoid this. And I also do not want to redo configuring options in all of my apps. I would rather be able to load an image of my Windows system as it is now configured, and run it as a guest machine.

Speed is not essential. For anything where speed might be a priority, I will make it a point to get that running natively on MX Linux.

I will revisit the Disk2vhd option. I think that will work.

By the way, in a different forum, someone recommended CloneZilla.
I am not familiar with CloneZilla. But the web site makes it seem like it, too, would solve my query.

Any commentary on CloneZilla vs. Disk2vhd or anything else is welcome.

Thank you.

To my knowledge CloneZilla does not create a recognized virtual image format as an intermediate step, and is therefore not an equivalent of the tools already recommended. As a disk backup tool I found CloneZilla crude in the extreme last time I tried it, at that time it only supported raw formats and therefore couldn't do smart imaging (i.e. ignore unused and unimportant sectors). With choices like Macrium Free available I wonder why anyone would choose CloneZilla even as a backup tool, and even Macrium isn't a good choice for P2V.