Here we can see, “How to Convert a Physical Windows or Linux PC to a Virtual Machine”
Want to stay an old Windows or Linux installation around without keeping the hardware around? Convert that physical Windows partition to a virtual disk drive, allowing you else it during a virtual machine program like VMware, Hyper-V, Parallels, or VirtualBox.
Windows ties itself to your computer’s hardware. These tools will create a replica of a physical machine’s state and switch it into a virtual machine, allowing it else within the virtual machine program you favour.
For VMware – Windows or Linux
- VMware offers a free tool referred to as VMware vCenter Converter. It can convert both Windows and Linux physical machines into VMware virtual machines. You’ll then boot these virtual machines in VMware’s free VMware Player application, which will be a free solution. You’ll also boot it up in VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion.
- Download vCenter Converter from VMware and launch it on the pc you would like to show into a virtual machine. Click the “Convert Machine” button on the toolbar and choose the present, powered-on computer because of the source. Choose a VMware Workstation, VMware Player, or VMware Fusion virtual machine because the destination and configure the choices for the virtual machine.
- The utility will then create a virtual machine from the present Windows system, modifying it to boot properly during a virtual machine program. Save that virtual machine to an external disk drive and boot it abreast of a special computer.
For Microsoft Hyper-V – Windows Only
- Microsoft offers a Disk2vhd tool — one among their many useful SysInternals utilities. This utility will convert a running Windows system to a VHD (virtual hard drive) file to be used in Microsoft’s virtual machine products, like the Hyper-V virtual machine included with professional versions of Windows 8 and eight .1.
- Run this tool on the Windows system you would like to convert. You’ll be ready to select which partitions and drives you would like to incorporate within the VHD file. It’ll create a replica of the running Windows system as a VHD file, and you’ll take that VHD file to a different computer and run it in Hyper-V — the converted physical system should boot up just fine as long as you launch it in Microsoft’s own Hyper-V virtual machine software.
For Parallels – Windows or Linux
- Parallels offer their tool referred to as “Parallels Transporter Agent.” This utility is often installed on either Windows or Linux. It can convert a physical system to a virtual machine to be used within the Parallels virtual machine application for Macs. It can copy the physical machine to a Parallels virtual machine file on a drive. Otherwise, you can transfer it to a Mac running Parallels over an area network.
- Download the Parallels Transporter Agent application from Parallels and run it on your Windows or Linux system. Use the wizard to transfer your current physical PC to an external disk drive or your Mac over the network, choosing exactly what makes it into that virtual machine.
For VirtualBox – A Manual Method
- VirtualBox doesn’t offer a simple graphical utility for converting a physical machine to a virtual machine. If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, they offer some unsupported instructions for converting a physical Windows computer to a VirtualBox virtual machine. This needs some registry tweaking and shutting down the pc. You’ll then need to manually create a disk replica and convert it to a VirtualBox VDI file.
- The method for converting a Linux virtual machine should be equivalent without all the additional tweaks required to form Windows behaves. It’s much easier to manoeuvre Linux installations between different machines with different hardware configurations.
- This process isn’t for the faint of heart, and that we include it here just for the sake of completeness. Albeit you employ VirtualBox already, you’ll want only to use VMware or Microsoft’s utility and provides VMware or Hyper-V with a try. If you’re still able to provide it with a try, consult the MIgrate Windows page on VirtualBox’s wiki.
- If you’re converting a Windows PC to a virtual machine, remember that you may encounter licensing issues. Windows Activation may detect that it’s running on a special machine, and you’ll need to contact Microsoft to urge it properly activated. Windows licenses are only alleged to be in use on one computer at a time.
Conclusion
I hope you found this guide useful. If you’ve got any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to use the shape below.
User Questions:
- What are virtualization technologies?
Virtualization relies on software to simulate hardware functionality and make a virtual computing system. This permits IT organizations to run quite one virtual system – and multiple operating systems and applications – on one server. The resulting benefits include economies of scale and greater efficiency.
- What is VMware and VirtualBox?
VMware is virtualization software that helps you to run multiple operating systems during a single host. VirtualBox is an Oracle tool to supply host-based virtualization. … Offers virtualization at the hardware level and offers virtualization at both hardware and software levels.
- Is VMware better than VirtualBox?
VMware vs Virtual Box: Comprehensive Comparison. … Oracle provides VirtualBox as a hypervisor for running virtual machines (VMs) while VMware provides multiple products for running VMs in several use cases. Both platforms are fast, reliable, and include a good array of interesting features.
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