Take image of current Windows installation, open on Mac

[simonk83]

Hi all,

So, currently I have a Windows installation which I'm going to sell off an move to a Mac Mini.

I also have MacBook Pro.

What I'd like to do is take a clone/image/snapshot/virtual machine of my current Windows installation, then have that image available as a VM on the new Mac. I've been trying to do this for a few days now (testing it out on the Macbook Pro) and I just can't get it working.

What's the best way to do this? I imagine I'm not the first person to need this

I do have VMware Fusion installed on the MBP, and I've tried the PC Migrate option but have run into a couple of issues.

1. I have several drives in the Windows PC and VMware seems to want to copy everything across (not just the Windows install drive) so it ends up over 500GB

2. I get an error anyway when it starts (network issues apparently).


Hoping someone has a simple solution for this

Thanks!!!

 

[balamw]

If you don't want your data drives migrated, just remove them from the PC before you image it.

FWIW I've used the standalone VMWare Converter for this many times. I usually send the image to an external HDD instead of trying a network link.

B

 

[simonk83]

If you don't want your data drives migrated, just remove them from the PC before you image it.

FWIW I've used the standalone VMWare Converter for this many times. I usually send the image to an external HDD instead of trying a network link.

B

Thanks, I actually have vmware converter running as we speak I'm also creating a vhd through disk2vhd.

Then I guess I'll try and open them in VirtualBox and hope for the best

Thanks

Ps. As for removing the other drives, that was a last resort. Bit of a PITA to do that so I was hoping there was a simpler way

 

[simonk83]

Right, I'm having zero luck with this.

The problem, as far as I can tell, is that my OS drive in the PC is an SSD, which has a 100mb "reserved" partition which seems to hold the system data. The boot data is on the main partition.

When I try Vmware converter, it fails at one of the last steps (setting up configuration I believe). When I tried disk2vhd, I end up with 2 vhd's, as you'd expect I suppose (one for the main drive and one for the system partition), but neither will boot without the other.

Pretty stuck Surely there's an easier way than this

Oh, and I tried disconnecting my two other drives and running the Fusion migration tool, but now it bloody refuses to connect. Bah.

 

[hfg]

Is it possible to go the other way around with the migration?

My Windows is running in a VMware Fusion virtual machine. I now have installed Windows as a bootable BootCamp installation, and also can access it as a VM.

Is it possible to take my old VM installation and fully migrate it to the native Windows installation (and attached VM)?


Thanks,
-howard

 

[balamw]

Is it possible to go the other way around with the migration?

My Windows is running in a VMware Fusion virtual machine. I now have installed Windows as a bootable BootCamp installation, and also can access it as a VM.

Is it possible to take my old VM installation and fully migrate it to the native Windows installation (and attached VM)?

There are no canned procedures for V2P (virtual to physical), I have seen cases of it working, but none generic enough to share.

VMWare has a tech note here: http://www.vmware.com/support/v2p/doc/V2P_TechNote.pdf

B

 

[hfg]

Thanks for the link ... I hadn't seen that.


-howard