Converting a "real" disk partition to a virtual VMware disk partition

[David A. Desrosiers]

I've searched the news.vmware.com archives going back several years, in
all groups, and I can't find any answers related to this subject...

Is it possible to take a hard drive, which has been physically
partitioned with an OS installed on it, and convert that to an image I can
run as a virtual image inside VMware?

For example, I buy a laptop from a computer store. It has Windows 2000
pre-installed on it. Can I 'dd' that image into a file, and somehow load
that into VMware for sandbox testing and analysis? I realize the drivers
and other small pieces will need to be adjusted, but that's minor. Is this
possible?

[NM]

Post by David A. Desrosiers
I've searched the news.vmware.com archives going back several years,
in all groups, and I can't find any answers related to this subject...
Is it possible to take a hard drive, which has been physically
partitioned with an OS installed on it, and convert that to an image
I can run as a virtual image inside VMware?
For example, I buy a laptop from a computer store. It has Windows 2000
pre-installed on it. Can I 'dd' that image into a file, and somehow
load that into VMware for sandbox testing and analysis? I realize the
drivers and other small pieces will need to be adjusted, but that's
minor. Is this possible?

http://tinyurl.com/5wper

http://www.vmware.com/products/vtools/p2v_features.html

http://www.vmts.net/selfp2v.htm

(took 5 minutes in Google).

[David A. Desrosiers]

Post by NM
http://tinyurl.com/5wper
http://www.vmware.com/products/vtools/p2v_features.html
http://www.vmts.net/selfp2v.htm
(took 5 minutes in Google).

Although none of these links are relevant, thanks for your reply.

I'm still searching for a viable solution/set of instructions...

[Jim Henderson]

PMFJI, but:

"VMware P2V Assistant is an enterprise-class migration tool that
transforms an image of an existing physical system into a VMware virtual
machine."

Sure looks like what you are trying to do. That's from the first
paragraph about the P2V software NM referenced....

Jim

[NM]

Post by David A. Desrosiers

Post by NM
http://tinyurl.com/5wper
http://www.vmware.com/products/vtools/p2v_features.html
http://www.vmts.net/selfp2v.htm
(took 5 minutes in Google).

Although none of these links are relevant, thanks for your reply.
I'm still searching for a viable solution/set of instructions...

First Link, "Can I make a drive image of a physical PC, and then transfer
that image into a virtual machine? What are the challenges associated with
this?"\

Second link, "VMware P2V Assistant is an enterprise-class migration tool
that transforms an image of an existing physical system into a VMware
virtual machine."

Third link, "How Convert Physical to Virtual".

Care to explain in more detail what you are doing so I can provide you with
more "relevant" links?

[ttboy]

Post by David A. Desrosiers

Post by NM
http://tinyurl.com/5wper
http://www.vmware.com/products/vtools/p2v_features.html
http://www.vmts.net/selfp2v.htm
(took 5 minutes in Google).

Although none of these links are relevant, thanks for your reply.
I'm still searching for a viable solution/set of instructions...

Not relevant !!!!! Pull your head out of your arse.

P2V is exactly what you want. I used it successfully with v2iprotector
to move a Win2K server to Vmware.

[David A. Desrosiers]

Post by ttboy
P2V is exactly what you want. I used it successfully with v2iprotector
to move a Win2K server to Vmware.

$2,000 to move 25 instances (that also includes moving the same image
several times during testing), is not exactly within my price range. I'll
find some other solution. Perhaps KNOPPIX will work here.

[Jerry Way]

If you've got the diskspace you can do a backup of your system to a
file. Do a base install of the same OS into a VM. Restore the backup.
On reboot you'll get a bunch of messages about the hardware.

I've done this a number of times.
JW

Post by David A. Desrosiers
I've searched the news.vmware.com archives going back several years, in
all groups, and I can't find any answers related to this subject...
Is it possible to take a hard drive, which has been physically
partitioned with an OS installed on it, and convert that to an image I can
run as a virtual image inside VMware?
For example, I buy a laptop from a computer store. It has Windows 2000
pre-installed on it. Can I 'dd' that image into a file, and somehow load
that into VMware for sandbox testing and analysis? I realize the drivers
and other small pieces will need to be adjusted, but that's minor. Is this
possible?

[David Sherman]

Why not?

If you "ghost" a Physical drive and then write ghost image to CDRW or
DVD, then you have to create a new floppy ghost disk
" which you are booting the guest operating system from a Norton Ghost
boot floppy, you must configure the floppy with drivers for the AMD
PCnet card. You can create a boot floppy with Norton Ghost's Boot
Floppy Wizard." from Vmware Knowledge base.


On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 07:44:35 -0500, "David A. Desrosiers"

Post by David A. Desrosiers
I've searched the news.vmware.com archives going back several years, in
all groups, and I can't find any answers related to this subject...
Is it possible to take a hard drive, which has been physically
partitioned with an OS installed on it, and convert that to an image I can
run as a virtual image inside VMware?
For example, I buy a laptop from a computer store. It has Windows 2000
pre-installed on it. Can I 'dd' that image into a file, and somehow load
that into VMware for sandbox testing and analysis? I realize the drivers
and other small pieces will need to be adjusted, but that's minor. Is this
possible?