[Discuss] Windows 8.1 P2V (virtualize my new PC)

[greg at freephile.com (Greg Rundlett (freephile))]

I bought a new PC with Windows 8 pre-installed.  I need Windows for
Windows-only applications like TurboTax, Dragon Naturally Speaking and
Netflix, but I'd like to make Windows a virtual guest and install Ubuntu as
the host on this new PC.

Is there a product or method (like the "enterprise" VMWare ESXi) that will
recognize my existing Windows 8 installation and offer to "put it in a box"
for me - the so-called P2V or Physical to Virtual conversion?  I don't
think wiping the factory drive and starting with a fresh installation of
Ubuntu would "work" AND even if it did, it would be a large effort.

Note: The drive is 2TB (1842.66GB partition), but being new, it's 97% free.
 In other words, I'd want to create a 100GB Windows virtual machine on the
2TB disk.

It looks like http://www.vmware.com/products/converter VMWare Converter
will do it.  Anyone know if this is true?

Also, it looks like VirtualBox will simply run a vmdk file, so no need to
convert it from vmdk to vdi.

I think I will want to run VirtualBox as the vm manager because I want to
create other linux VMs to trial/develop LAMP systems like Drupal, CiviCRM,
MediaWiki etc.

It looks like Microsoft offers disk2vhd
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysinternals/ee656415.aspx for doing p2v
on live systems.  VHD is the virtual disk format for Microsoft's
Virtualization technology.  I can create a VHD from within the Windows
Control Panel, so I'm not really sure what extra/advantage disk2vhd offers.
 And again, if VMWare Converter works for p2v, then I don't even need
Microsoft tools or formats.

If it's best to start with a VHD, I could convert that to VMDK (using
VMWare Converter) to make it "more" usable by VMWare Player or VMWare
Workstation, but from what I see, VirtualBox will be happy to run a VHD
directly (so no conversion necessary).

It seems like Qemu is another option
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualMachines, but I haven't explored
that and as I'm less familiar with it, I'd be disinclined to use it unless
it's "better" than VirtualBox.

The PC did not come with install media, but I've made a Windows Recovery
Disk set (4 DVDs).  But, that is /only/ an option to basically re-install
the OEM system so it doesn't include any of the software applications that
are currently installed.  (Chrome, VLC, TurboTax etc.), and I'm not sure
whether it's boot restricted which would prevent it from even being
installed in a virtual container.

Once I know what tool works for virtualizing the physical PC, what is the
best practice for re-structuring the system?

ie.
# shrink the current Windows partition 2TB -> 100 GB using Microsoft Disk
Manager
# create the vhd/vmdk/vdi file from that partition
# reboot and install Ubuntu to unallocated space (preserving the 100 GB
NTFS partition)
# create ext3 partitions for /usr, /var, /tmp, /usr/local, /data and /home
# mount old NTFS partition and copy over the vdi to /data
# install VirtualBox
# setup and run Windows 8.1 vm from vhd/vmdk/vdi file
# reclaim the NTFS (Windows) partition


Greg Rundlett
http://eQuality-Tech.com
http://freephile.org