"How to convert a physcial computer to a virtual machine" with NTBackup

Monday, February 20, 2006

"How to convert a physcial computer to a virtual machine" with NTBackup

Macro Linz » How to convert a physcial computer to a virtual machine

"I recently got a new replacement laptop for work. I had a lot of stuff on the old laptop after 2+ years of use and so I didn’t want to have to rush myself in remembering everything in one or two passes before formatting it to send back to the office. There are always things I forget when I’m mostly focused on moving data files over: files in “hidden” places like IM logs and non-file based data such as product keys, configuration info, settings for programs and other stuff. So I decided the best thing to do was make it into a VM and take my time about reinstalling and configuring the new laptop to match.

After some Googling I found a forum conversation on ArsTechnica about how some people did it. I had been planning to use Symantech Ghost but the version my company supplied was old and I didn’t want to shell out another $70 of my own. Someone mentioned in the post that you could use NTBackup, a free, already-there backup application on Windows XP. He said it was actually a preferred method because NTBackup is actually there to provide recovery services from backups made on different hardware. There would be no tweaking of drivers necessary on the new VM.

So I tried the P2V using NTBackup and it worked well. My last attempt (out of 3) was relatively painless. The first two failed because of miscalculations on my part. Since I had trouble finding information on how to do it and I generally need more detailed steps than the hardware gurus give me, I thought I’d document the process here in case anyone else has the same challenges I did.

…"

Very cool… I’ve used the Ghost method and while I was able to get it to work, it was a pain (Tips for migrating a physical computer to a virtual machine (part 4)).

Once I get my hands on an external drive I’m trying this method out…

(via MAKE: – HOW TO - Convert a physcial computer to a virtual machine)