Virtual Machine, can I use an existing HD image

I haven't tried it with virtualbox. Google found this:

I use Hyper-V and this:

I have a Windows 7 VM on Hyper-V made with that. It has remote desktop enabled so I can use it from any computer on my LAN. You will find that Windows is not activated when it becomes a VM but that can be fixed with one of the dodgy but working keys available on ebay/amazon.

I also have an XP VM installed from scratch which also has remote desktop enabled. It will send this post.

I have so many Debian VMs now I'm losing track of what's on which.

I haven't tried it on a host system with less than 8GB RAM.

And, you will find you can create a "vanilla" VM (for OS) and use it to test-drive software before actually embracing it -- on a REAL machine *or* a VM. Decide you don't like it? Just discard the VM in favor of a clean copy of the original.

MIPS and memory are your friends.

Create one "minimalist" VM of each OS that you want to support in your VMs. Use a *copy* of this VM as the starting point to build each VM of that OS flavor (i.e., so you only have to install and set-up the basic OS once)

Think *hard* about where you want to go with each/set of VM(s). E.g., I use small VMs to support specific releases of certain tools -- rather than a *big* VM loaded with all sorts of tools (that aren't really essential to the tool I'm trying to support). In this way, I can support different CAD, EDA, etc. tools "independent" of each other -- instead of trying to have them all coexist under the same (hardware or virtual) machine.

"Scratch" disks can be shared between machines.

Remember, if you want to backup the entire machine, its size will impact how *costly* it is to backup!

Given the above, make sure you have hardware resources to run more than one VM concurrently; if you need two tools that happen to exist in different VMs then you'll need to have both VMs "up".

[I run an ESXi server so I can put the bulk of the resources (disk space, MIPS, RAM, etc.) in a single (hardware) machine and access that from a variety of clients, concurrently.]

Take a *shitload* of notes so you know what's where (OS & apps), passwords, user names, etc.

You can do it to some extent. Making an image of the old HD is easy, especially if you are going the sane route and using Linux as the host on the new PC. Plug in the old disk (a USB sata converter makes this simple) and "dd" the disk to an image file to get a full raw image. (If you only want to copy the old program, it's simpler - and there are more sophisticated and more efficient ways to make an image. But "dd" is simple.)

Then you build a new virtual machine with VirtualBox, attach the image as the disk, and boot up.

The things that can go wrong are pretty much the same as if you were to plug the old disk into a new PC - Windows doesn't much like it when all the hardware suddenly changes. So be prepared for it to get a bit confused, and perhaps also require activation anew.

Yes - any ignore suggestions to use MS' hypervisor, VMWare, or anything else - VirtualBox is the best combination of functionality and usability for general desktop virtualisation. (Other systems can be better on servers or for special cases.)

And use Linux on the host, as it is much more efficient and reliable. I've run tests showing programs running measurably faster in a VB virtual Windows machine on a Linux host than running on Windows natively on the same hardware. (That will, of course, depend on your hardware and the programs you are using.)

I've never used VirtualBox (other than testing it) but I would have done so if other choices had not met my requirements. It's been at least 20 years since I first used VMware (On NT4 or 2000, I forget which). More recently the need to virtualize a Windows 7 box (so I could get rid of the old hardware) was met perfectly well with Hyper-V When I don't need Windows in the picture at all, proxmox works fine.

When doing electronics design you sometimes have to try out a few different solutions before you find the best one. (It could be that you try different solutions in your head without actually building anything.) I find it's very similar with virtualization software. Excluding all other options because "this one is the best" is, to me, like excluding all other device manufacturers because "Maxim is the best"

Whether you like it or not, most people have a need for at least one Windows box. And the Windows box is probably the one they do most of their everyday computer work on. So for a desktop (or laptop) workstation it makes sense (to me) to put other things in VMs on Windows.

There certainly are situations where I wouldn't touch Windows, such as running servers in a data centre. There I'd put as many Debian installations as I need on Proxmox. But that is getting off topic for this thread.

It's rare for me to care how fast something runs on a Windows desktop (or laptop) and I can always leave it overnight if it really needs time to complete.

This post will be brought to you from Outlook Express on Windows XP pro on Hyper-V on Windows 10 pro.

Could anyone provide a step by step set of instructions how to take an existing Win7 installation (and all its files) on a laptop and make it into a Virtualbox "appliance" on a Macbook Pro. The Macbook already has Virtualbox configured and running another "appliance" so I don't need to install or configure Virtualbox itself.

My approach would be to first get it running on Hyper-V with

Then I know I've got a working VM which isn't using the original hardware drivers. Next I'd use a search engine to find this: I haven't used that before but it might eliminate the Hyper-V step. Then I'd do this: Step by step instructions which exactly meet your own requirements are only likely to come into existence when you're done and it's working. I wouldn't mind seeing the instructions if you succeed.

I doubt you're going to find a clear x step process that will work perfectly.

The catches are license problems when you change from real hardware to virtual hardware. Some windows installs are licensed to specific hardware and will not run in emulation unless you poke at it enough. I recently did some P2V conversions of desktops with licensed expensive versions of vmware and it still wasn't a click next, next, next done process. For example, their migration tools still don't know how to handle or skip recovery partitions in a sane way.

I use Linux containers directly on standard Debian servers (before that, I used OpenVZ). But I am planing on testing Proxmox for a future server.

I've looked at others, and tried VMWare as well as VirtualBox. Like with electronics design, if you want to seriously test the possible solutions you will probably never finish in time, so you take shortcuts.

In my office I have one Linux workstation, and one Windows workstation. I need both for my work. I am quite happy to use Windows for Windows work or for Windows programs. But I can't see any reason to choose it for hosting virtual machines.

If someone wants to have a single computer, do work on that computer, and also host virtual machines - then of course they should use whichever host OS they find best for their other uses.

I do the great majority of my work on Linux. But then, I am primarily an embedded programmer rather than an electronics designer. When I use Altium, it's on the Windows machine.

Fair enough.

For programs that do calculations, there is no noticeable difference - it's all down to cpu speed. But when you have a lot of file access, Windows can be a great deal slower than Linux. The case where Windows was faster in a VM on Linux than it was natively was from file access - the Linux host did a much better job of caching files, so when the Windows VM kept try to re-read them from disk it got them from ram, while the native Windows read them from the disk. (It was in the days of spinning rust.)

I guess there's no point in changing things that work for you!

Broadly speaking: 1: image the win7 hard disk onto the macbook 2: make a virtual machine that uses the imaged disk. 3: boot and resolve any driver problems.

If it throws a "geniune disadvantage" error call the number and tell them you replaced the mainboard in your computer.

--
  Jasen.

{snip}

I still have one OpenVZ but it's due for replacement within weeks.

I agree it can take a lot of time.

If I need to go elsewhere I take a Windows laptop and put anything Linux I need in a VM.

I first used VMware for XP on Windows 10 but after testing Hyper-V there didn't seem to be any point continuing with VMware for that specific need.

My idea was to generate a Tools VM and some test VMs (to not break the rest of the system)

I guess I can exchange files between the VMs and the running machine on shared drives

Yes, one learns with age that that is really useful, 2 weeks after you can't remember the password

Better to build a new vm and overwrite the newly created disk image with your real image. There are other files created in addition to the disk image. I don't remember if it will do it properly with your disk image properly.

I did that. Created the .vhd file from my old Windows 7 system, then loaded the VM. Instead of starting up, I got a UEFI Interactive Shell, with some options and a shell promt.

I believe the UEFI promt is BIOS related, but don't know how to go from there?

If I "Exit", I get into a BIOS system, but cannot go further from there

Thanks for the tips :-)

Make sure your BIOS enable virtualization and the VirtualBox use fixed size disk. Dynamic size disk is a linux thing and Win 7 might not work.

[snip]

For most of us, the threat model is being penetrated by someone an ocean away, so they are not going to turn up and rifle through our workrooms. So, there is no reason not to write all such passwords down in ink on paper (not a computer). Use lots of different passwords, so one hack won't expose everything.

If one does have a problem with Intelligence Agencies and the like rifling through the workshop, they will get in, and no amount of password magic will stop them.

Joe Gwinn

And yet, exactly that happened in the US Senate offices, no less!

CH

Try to disable UEFI, your old computer may not have been setup for that and requires "legacy" boot mode. I don't use virtual box, so I can't help with the steps there.

There are instructions here that may work, but I've never had it work out quite right:

Unlike Linux installations where this is fairly straightforward Windows likes to wrap itself into and memorize what hardware it's running on to a greater degree and tends to get cranky when it radically changes

Windows applications too I should add