![]() ![]() Reputation and my own experience suggested that a VM produced by that tool would probably work well, and it appeared that VirtualBox would be able to use it. It seemed that those and other physical installations would probably be best virtualized by using VMware vCenter Converter 6. The more sensible thing would be to create just one 64-bit Windows 7 VM, and then change the key in copies of that VM later, as needed. First, it would make sense to set up one basic Windows installation for each version of Windows that I might want to use in a VM. It was possible to change the product key in a Windows installation, so there would be no reason to create multiple Windows 7 圆4 installations, for example, if the user had multiple Windows 7 圆4 installation DVDs lying around. That information narrowed down the choices among paths going forward. I decided not to pursue this option at present. There seemed to be various advantages and risks: performance might improve, but the entire contents of the drive containing the Windows installation might be at risk. So, for example, in a dual-boot system, I might not need a separate Windows VM to run in Linux I might instead create an empty VM and link it to the underlying Windows dual-boot installation. Raw Hard Disk Access. There was a raw hard disk access technique, where the Windows installation on a hard disk would not be virtualized, but would rather be accessed directly from a VM in which no separate OS was installed.It sounded like the reliability problem had to do with recognition of drivers inside the VM. Acronis said this would entail booting my version of True Image from an Acronis live CD inside the VM, but advised that this approach was less reliable than converting a. Restore an Image into an Empty VM. I could use Acronis to restore a.vmdk format, which VirtualBox would recognize. To achieve that virtualization, I could use vCenter Converter (above), or I also reportedly had the option of using Disk2VHD to create a VHD file (maximum size apparently = 127GB), which was then convertible into. tib file onto a willing computer, and could then virtualize that installation into a VM file that VirtualBox would recognize. Virtualize a Physical Windows Installation. I could start with an existing physical Windows installation, or could create one by restoring an Acronis.This was apparently a change: older versions of vCenter Converter ( evidently no longer available except through questionable third parties) supposedly supported Acronis. Otherwise, it sounded like VMware’s vCenter Converter version 6 would only work with physical installations, VMware VMs, and Microsoft Hyper-V Servers. tib files, but I wasn’t too eager to buy a copy of Workstation ($250). VMware Workstation was apparently able to convert. Sadly, the User’s Guide contained no references to Acronis. I did that, and also downloaded their User’s Guide. But it didn’t seem to have the Recover feature that eHow found in Acronis Backup & Recovery, or that reportedly existed in the latest version of Acronis True Image.) I had previously downloaded VMware’s vCenter Converter Standalone - oddly named, if “standalone” sounds like it should mean portable: I had to install it. (My version of Acronis included the Plus Pack. tib files made with Acronis True Image Home 2011. Convert a Backup Image. I could try to convert a backup image of a physical Windows installation to a VM.But since those VMs expired after just a few months, that approach did not seem ideal for my goal of setting up VMs that I could use long-term. Preconfigured VM.I could download and run a preconfigured Windows VM from Microsoft.But I did not want to have to recreate, from scratch, a heavily tweaked Windows 7 installation of 50GB or more. ![]() Setting up new Windows installations would be relatively easy in that sort of case, where the goal was to create the simplest possible installation. I had recently done this with a copy of Windows XP, for purposes of virtualizing various Windows programs. Start from Scratch.I could install Windows from scratch inside the VM.Converting a Large Windows 7 TIB to VHD to VirtualBox VM.A Minimal Windows 7 Ultimate 圆4 Upgrade VM from Scratch.Converting Various Windows XP Backup Images (.tib).Converting a Simple Windows XP Physical Installation.Virtualize a Physical Windows Installation.I wondered which one(s) I could and should run in that VM, and which one(s) I might want to run in other VMs at some point. I already had some Windows installations, backups, and CDs. As part of that system, I wanted to run Windows in a virtual machine (VM) in VirtualBox. As described in another post, I was transitioning to a Linux system. ![]()
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