Re: Migrating a dual-boot to a VM

["Ted Roche-2" <user=127@nabble.blu.org>]

 On 10/29/07, Seth Gordon <[hidden email]> wrote: 
> 
> My wife's laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1100(?) dual-booting Windows XP and 
> Ubuntu, but I don't think we have the CD for it.  How could that Windows 
> instance be migrated onto a virtual machine? 
> 

I've done this. Boot the machine with a LiveCD; I've used Knoppix. 
Other folks recommend CloneZilla, I haven't had the chance to try it 
out. 

Back up the partition you want to virtualize using partimage. I'd 
recommend making an image to an external drive, that way you have the 
added benefit that you could restore if things go badly. 

Install your choice of vm-ware (Xen, QEMU, VMWare, whatever) on your 
Linux box. Create a VM sufficient to hold your partition (hence, you 
may want to slim it down first). Boot, within this VM, from the LiveCD 
and restore the image you created into the VM's partition. 

Futzing with partition settings and GRUB is usually needed. Grabbing a 
Master Boot Record (MBR) is always a good idea, too. Doesn't hurt to 
have a separate working machine enrolled in your favorite LUGs mailing 
list ;) 

As a general rule, I image all of my partitions this way, in case I do 
something spectacularly dumb with PartEd and need to restore the 
entire disk. 

-- 
Ted Roche 
Ted Roche &amp; Associates, LLC 
http://www.tedroche.com

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