Way to turn my boot camp Win OS into movable VM? Not just booting it in Fusion

[lokiju]

I use VMware Fusion to boot my boot camp partition as a VM but I can't figure out a way to export that "VM" into VM image files that I can then move off to another OS X machine and load it up.

I want to rebuild my Mac Pro and would like to first move my boot camp Win7 VM to a proper Vmware file(s), copy on over to my Mac Book Pro and then blow away my Mac Pro and do a clean install without having the boot camp partition even in place.

I'm not attached to VMware Fusion either and wouldn't mind having the option of importing this boot camp VM into Virtual Box also.

 

[MisterMe]

I use VMware Fusion to boot my boot camp partition as a VM but I can't figure out a way to export that "VM" into VM image files that I can then move off to another OS X machine and load it up.

I want to rebuild my Mac Pro and would like to first move my boot camp Win7 VM to a proper Vmware file(s), copy on over to my Mac Book Pro and then blow away my Mac Pro and do a clean install without having the boot camp partition even in place.

...

The first thing that you need to understand is that Boot Camp is not a virtual machine. You are running an Intel operating system from the hard drive of an Intel-based computer.

Your Boot Camp installation of Win7 is tied to your Mac Pro's hardware. The OS image for a Mac Pro is not the same as the OS image for VM Fusion's virtual hardware. Windows 7 on VM Fusion requires its own installation and activation.

 

[lokiju]

The first thing that you need to understand is that Boot Camp is not a virtual machine. You are running an Intel operating system from the hard drive of an Intel-based computer.

Your Boot Camp installation of Win7 is tied to your Mac Pro's hardware. The OS image for a Mac Pro is not the same as the OS image for VM Fusion's virtual hardware. Windows 7 on VM Fusion requires its own installation and activation.

I realize this, as noted by my desire to convert my Win7 OS running on Boot Camp to "VM files" that can be moved around.

But thanks.

I'm trying now to run the Vmware convert tool built into Vmware fusion to see if I can convert my boot camp partition that's booted up and running in vmware fusion into vm files. I'm not sure what file extension this will create but am hoping for .vmdk's so I can use it in VirtualBox also.

 

[scottsun]

This is the answer that works within Windows, which gives the experience more fluid and OS X. For example, mouse movement easily in and out of a virtual machine.