Windows PC drive images

[ridley]

I am wanting to run my old PC inside a VM and so I will need to create images of the drives.

I see I can use DSK2VHD and then convert the image to something suitable for the VM but I have several drives in the old PC, do I make several image files or one that covers all the drives?

Or is there a better/easier way of doing this?

Edited August 5, 2022 by ridley

[ghost82]

You are the only one that knows what your hard drives contain, so make a copy of what you need.

Or if the quesrion is if you can clone several drives into one image, as far as I know...no. As far as the vm, to run it only needs the os partion image(s) (and the efi partition (if efi)). Usually you clone the whole drive containing all the os partitions.

If I were you I would attach the os hard drive in the server and pass it to the vm directly, or if you want an image file for the disk, I would attach the os hard drive in the server and use linux dd command to clone it as a raw image; or another alternative is to boot your old pc from a linux live usb pedrive/cd/dvd and use dd command to clone the hd as a raw image and then transfer it somewhere in the server.

Take into account that you need space to save image(s), on a disk different than that you are cloning, at least a free space equal to the whole disk capacity you will clone.

I would avoid any virtio device and use legacy ones when you create the vm.

Edited August 5, 2022 by ghost82