On Thu, Feb 08, 2007 at 04:04:01AM -0800, Antnio C. N. Crespo wrote:
Hello Folks,
Do you have any experience converting physical
machines into Virtual
machines to be used with Microsoft Virtual PC or even
VMWare?
I'd like to do this with client desktops or even
servers that where
hacked or must be checked, forensics, I mean.
I've had luck migrating some legacy W2k boxes from physical to virtual using
VMware's
(then) P2V app. I documented the steps it took on an XP machine as well
(below). There may have been an easier way, this is just how I got it to
work. Please excuse any goofy commentary, these were just notes for me.
FYI: p2v is now Converter http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
How to convert an existing Windows parition to a VM.
I did this because a lot of my important data (financial
software etc) is on my Windows machine and I couldn't afford
to be without it while I reloaded the OS.
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Tools needed:
Windows
Ghost boot CD/floppy
VMWare (Workstation, ESX or GSX Server)
VMWare's P2V 2 Util
_____________________________________________________
Boot source machine with Ghost boot CD/floppy
Ghost the boot partition to image
I had space on another partition on this machine. newer ghost
has ability to write to usb drives. You may want one of those versions
*note: corp edition 8.2 crashed when I attempted to write to usb/ntfs
disk
Start VMWare Workstation (in my case)
Create new Windows XP VM
If image is on another partition, define it (as a partition) in VM
Start new machine and Ghost boot
I was unable to boot from floppy, used boot cd iso instead
Restore source partition, from image to primary disk defined in VM
Shutdown VM
Start P2V
Perform a system reconfiguration on an existing virtual disk
Browse to the VM (.vdmk) that was just created, and select it
P2V will scan VM and display volume & OS information (click next)
Select your target VMWare product (I selected workstation 4.5.2 or 5.x)
Do preinstall a temporary VMWare SVGA Driver (click next)
Click next (AGAIN)
If all goes well you'll get a congrats and P2V will tell you
that there are some remaining manual steps, review the steps
and click finish.
Launch VMWare with the image
I removed the physical drive I mapped earlier to prevent accidents
Install VMWare Tools
_____________________________________________________
Now you have an image you can move to another machine and use while you rebuild
or test the original source machine. As long as you have 2 machines, there's no
reason at all to have downtime while mucking about with your Windows box.
The whole process too about 30 minutes. Sexy huh?
--
M@
