whats best way to turn my current windows 10 pc to a vm image for unraid ?

 

thanks

whats best way to turn my current windows 10 pc to a vm image for unraid ?

 

thanks

 

I have NO idea how to do this. I thought for instance just using Windows Backup and saving the file to the Array OR USB disk. Then creating a "Boot disk" as if you were just backing up the PC and getting ready to restore. Then creating a VM with Exactly the same size vdisk as the physical PC. I would then imagine you would have to boot from the "Boot Disk" as if it was an OS install disk. You might get caught here because you would have to point the software to the image files you save on USB or the Array (not sure how you would do this). If that worked "Maybe" it would restore.

 

I quickly googled and it seems there are instances of this being done with other tools and using other platforms: https://syneto.eu/knowledgebase/how-to-convert-physical-machine-to-kvm-virtual-machine/

 

As a side note, I think if you did this you would most certainly invalidate your activation and have to activate again.

 

Let's see if anyone posts who has done this before so you can have a response that is not just conjecture and guess work.

It might be possible using a paid product from Acronis to back up your PC to an Acronis image and then restore it to a VM, not sure it would work for sure though.

The long way i seen is convert pc to vmware then convert to raw just wanted to see if theres a direct way to do it , i have a windows 10 already so guess i can see if convert then paste to same folder in disk arrays i seen toms video on it but thought there may be convert pc to raw image rather than convert twice

The long way i seen is convert pc to vmware then convert to raw just wanted to see if theres a direct way to do it , i have a windows 10 already so guess i can see if convert then paste to same folder in disk arrays i seen toms video on it but thought there may be convert pc to raw image rather than convert twice

 

If you do end up doing it - in whatever way - please post back here with your results! 

I will there other cheating way i can try is copy paste to the img file of the hard drive but drivers may have heart attack

I will there other cheating way i can try is copy paste to the img file of the hard drive but drivers may have heart attack

 

I just stumbled on another thread which was discussed today in this very issue and thought I'd come back and link you to it:

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=47826.0

Your options are endless, problem is, source and destination have so many variables (of which you did not share much ), that there is no complete guide that catches all the if's and when's...

 

Basic idea is:

1) create a backup (there are thousands of programs, but it should have preferably a bootable version to start the vm with)

2) create a vm that is as similar as possible to your pc, every change may result some form of error that must be solved. *

3) boot the vm and restore the backup.

4) If your vm does not boot, the Windows installation disk may help.

 

*) As long as you have no "virtio" disks, Win10 should have no issues at boot due to drivers. (sata prefered)

*) Make sure, that the BIOS type matches that of your physical installation (BIOS/MBR = SeaBIOS, UEFI/GPT = OVMF)

 

Acronis is a good program, but not the cheapest.

CloneZilla can basicly do the same, just not so comfortable. (its free though)

You could search for "clonezilla p2v". (physical-to-virtual).

 

And remember, you might need to re-activate windows, due to the massive hardware change.

Could be tricky if there were upgrades involved.

 

Depending on your Installation, starting fresh and re-installing could be faster.

 

Or... You could also skip creating an image completly.

If you passthrough the whole disk, Win10 should have no issue booting, as long as the bios-type matches.