Live HDD install --> VMware image. Doable?

U

uzor

Supreme [H]ardness
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I'm looking for some way to create a disk image of a live install on an existing HDD that I can use as a source for for some type of VMware like application (VMware, Virtual PC, other?). Anyone know what would be involved in accomplishing this? I do have Norton Ghost, as well, if it helps (not sure of the version, though).

Thanks!

 
If you need a straight image ...
Get the latest BartPE build, and boot off of it. Plug in a USB hard drive, then from Bart PE: start the built-in Norton Ghost app, and tell it to create an image of the machine's hard drive and write the image file(s) to the USB hard drive.

If you're looking to virtualize the machine ...
Contact VMWare sales, and talk with one of the guys about a product called "P2V" (Physical 2 Virtual). This is normally an add-on product that is targeted for batching multiple (20+ or more) machines to virtual. See if you can get a demo of it to "try this out on a few machines before committing to purchasing".

Also on the virtualization topic ... I saw recently a webinar on a really slick product in the works that is being done between Acronis and VMWare called "Acronis Full Circle". It appears to support all sorts of P2V, V2V, V2P, and even live migrations instead of taking machines offline to do the migration process! Worth looking into...

hth!
 
Yeah, the Physical 2 Virtual thing is what I'm looking to do. I'll go check them out and see what I come up with. Thanks. If anyone knows of an alternate method to do the same thing, having choices might not be bad.

thanks, again.

 
VMware's P2V Assistant is now being combined with their VM importer and is being released as VMware convertor.

I've used the beta and its pretty easy to use. Just make sure that you install VMware tools before you use the convertor.

P2V Assistant

VMware Convertor

For medium-large scale migrations I'd consdier other options like PowerConvert from Platespin.
 
cool, I'll check it out. I downloaded the beta that was up a week or two ago, but I think I need to do a cold transfer for the machine I'm trying to image. The instructions say to use the VMware Converter Boot CD, but the beta didn't have an iso for it or anything. Is that piece only available in retail, or did I miss something?

Also anything special I might need to keep in mind if I'm trying to image a win98 machine?

Thanks for the advice!

::edit::
was doing a little more searching on the subject, and I ran across an article that might be really handy: http://4sysops.com/archives/p2v-for-vmware-six-ways-to-convert-physical-to-virtual/
This article lists 6 different ways one might accomplish a p2V conversion, two of those being the VMWare and PowerConvert methods mentioned here. The one I'm finding most interesting, however, is the BartPE based one. I'm going to give that a SERIOUS look when I get back to the office on Monday.

 
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