I found my old Hard Drive a while ago and since I have an ASUS laptop, it won't let me boot from an external HDD. The HDD is my old desktop drive and Windows is loaded on to it. I was wondering if I could use VirtualBox to access that HDD so I can see what I have on the drive. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and have a great day!
-Sam Fortney
Using an Old Hard Drive to Access an Old Windows OS
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SamFortney
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 8. Jun 2020, 11:17
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mpack
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 39134
- Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
- Primary OS: MS Windows 10
- VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
- Guest OSses: Mostly XP
Re: Using an Old Hard Drive to Access an Old Windows OS
There is no such OS as "Windows". Please be specific, it makes a huge difference to your question.
Also, please be clear: you have an old internal drive which you have now mounted in an external caddy, is that right? If so, why you do need to turn it into a VM in order to access the files? I'm not getting that part: Windows should allow you to see the contents of an external drive even if you can't boot from it (which p.s. is usually just a BIOS option).
Anyway - addressing your question.
Yes, if you can access the old drive then you can image it with Disk2VHD. Be sure to image the whole drive, not just (say) the C: volume.
Unfortunately, VHD is a really crappy auto-self-destructing format. So, next step is to convert the VHD to VDI using CloneVDI. This just changes the container, not the disk contents.
Now you can build a new VM around the existing VDI. How much trouble you have getting it to boot very much depends on what "Windows" means. At worst you can always mount the VDI in another working VM.
There is also third party software which can view the contents of an imaged drive, and they support various formats. In fact, if all you want to do is view the contents of a virtual drive then this may be your easiest option.
Also, please be clear: you have an old internal drive which you have now mounted in an external caddy, is that right? If so, why you do need to turn it into a VM in order to access the files? I'm not getting that part: Windows should allow you to see the contents of an external drive even if you can't boot from it (which p.s. is usually just a BIOS option).
Anyway - addressing your question.
Yes, if you can access the old drive then you can image it with Disk2VHD. Be sure to image the whole drive, not just (say) the C: volume.
Unfortunately, VHD is a really crappy auto-self-destructing format. So, next step is to convert the VHD to VDI using CloneVDI. This just changes the container, not the disk contents.
Now you can build a new VM around the existing VDI. How much trouble you have getting it to boot very much depends on what "Windows" means. At worst you can always mount the VDI in another working VM.
There is also third party software which can view the contents of an imaged drive, and they support various formats. In fact, if all you want to do is view the contents of a virtual drive then this may be your easiest option.
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SamFortney
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 8. Jun 2020, 11:17
Re: Using an Old Hard Drive to Access an Old Windows OS
1) Its an old hard drive that I had back in 2010, I have no clue to which windows version it is. I believe its either windows 7, or vista.
2) Yes, it was an internal hard drive that i mounted to an external caddy, connected through USB 3.0. I am wanting to access it through a VM because my ASUS laptop will not let me boot from another drive through the BIOS. I can see the files on the drive, but I dont know where to look for the files.
3) This was what I was looking for when I asked this question, I just didn't know how to do it, haha. Thank you so much for the information, it helps a lot!
2) Yes, it was an internal hard drive that i mounted to an external caddy, connected through USB 3.0. I am wanting to access it through a VM because my ASUS laptop will not let me boot from another drive through the BIOS. I can see the files on the drive, but I dont know where to look for the files.
3) This was what I was looking for when I asked this question, I just didn't know how to do it, haha. Thank you so much for the information, it helps a lot!
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mpack
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 39134
- Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
- Primary OS: MS Windows 10
- VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
- Guest OSses: Mostly XP
Re: Using an Old Hard Drive to Access an Old Windows OS
2010 would be very late in the day for Vista, which in any case was never popular. Windows 7 came out in 2009, which makes it the most likely candidate for a laptop bought the following year.
Good news and bad news: Windows 7 understood VMs and disk imaging. On the one hand that allowed it to adapt much more easily when imaged and moved to new hardware. On the other hand it it's very good at knowing when that has happened, so this almost certainly kills activation. It's possible that it will allow reactivation, but it's also possible that it's a royalty branded copy (say, Dell or HP), and will only activate on systems that have a Dell/HP BIOS, which a VirtualBox VM does not have. In that case it would be back to the access files only scenario.
There's another option I was meaning to recommend: if all you want is a conveniently located image of the old hard drive that you can access when needed to check old software configs etc, then I do that all the time, but I don't use a VM for it, I just image the old drive with Macrium Reflect (Free Edition). This includes a feature to mount the image as a virtual drive in the host. The image can be dismounted again when you're done, a bit like plugging and unplugged a USB drive.
Good news and bad news: Windows 7 understood VMs and disk imaging. On the one hand that allowed it to adapt much more easily when imaged and moved to new hardware. On the other hand it it's very good at knowing when that has happened, so this almost certainly kills activation. It's possible that it will allow reactivation, but it's also possible that it's a royalty branded copy (say, Dell or HP), and will only activate on systems that have a Dell/HP BIOS, which a VirtualBox VM does not have. In that case it would be back to the access files only scenario.
There's another option I was meaning to recommend: if all you want is a conveniently located image of the old hard drive that you can access when needed to check old software configs etc, then I do that all the time, but I don't use a VM for it, I just image the old drive with Macrium Reflect (Free Edition). This includes a feature to mount the image as a virtual drive in the host. The image can be dismounted again when you're done, a bit like plugging and unplugged a USB drive.