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

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 5:58 PM, Greg Rundlett (freephile)
<greg at freephile.com> wrote:
> 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. ....
>...
>
> Also, it looks like VirtualBox will simply run a vmdk file, so no need to
> convert it from vmdk to vdi.

Just because VirtualBox will OPEN a vmdk file doesn't mean that it
will BOOT the OS
installed there.   I think of it this way:   Linux might be able to
mount a FAT or even NTFS
file system,  but it doesn't mean that Linux will run DOS or Windows
programs which happen to
be installed there.   The drivers which are installed is your native
Windows installation
are unlikely to be identical to what is required to talk to the
emulated hardware that
VirtualBox supplies.   Moving those drives to a vmdk virtual disk
image isn't going to change that.   With some luck and judicious
installs of drivers before the P2V conversion, you might
very well be able to make this work.   Looking at the VMware vCenter
Converter User's Guide
(http://www.vmware.com/pdf/convsa_50_guide.pdf), it looks like it
might do some of
the driver installions for you  (for VMware).  OTOH, it talks about
problems with OEM licenses.
Having no experience with using it, I can't say for sure what will work.

Bill Bogstad