How to Make a Virtual Image from Bootable Hard Disk

[danmpem]

I am a newb to VMWare Workstation, so please bear with me. I want to make a Virtual Image out of my Windows XP partition, so I can just load that on my VMWare on my Mac. I know how to make a normal virtual image so i can just boot & install linux, etc on it, but how do I get my bootable windows disk onto the vitual image?

My specs:

Dell Dimension 4600

Windows XP Pro SP3

Pentium 4 2.4 GHz 32-bit Single-Core

2GB RAM

160 GB SATA Hard Drive, partitioned into a 25GB C:\ and a 100GB D:\ for data & program installation. Both are partitioned in using NTFS

VMWare Workstation 6.5

Thanks!

[danmpem]

Oh, and I meant to say that I want to boot this image on my Mac using VMWare Player, not Fusion. I haven't yet used VMWare on a Mac, so I don't know how well my Windows-made virtual image will work on other systems.

[continuum]

vmplayer does not run on MAC

___________________________________

VMX-parameters- VMware-liveCD - VM-Sickbay

[RDPetruska]

Use the free VMware Converter to convert your existing physical PC to a virtual machine which will run under VMware products.

The only VMware product to run on Macs at this time is Fusion, however.

[danmpem]

Hmm, I thought that Fusion was used to boot another partition with an OS, while still remaining in the Mac OS...or can it do both?

But thank you very much! Now I know how to get it up and running!

[RDPetruska]

>Hmm, I thought that Fusion was used to boot another partition with an OS, while still remaining in the Mac OS...or can it do both?

Fusion (and Workstation, and Player, and VMware Server, and other competitor's products) and other virtualization software can do both. Run a virtual machine with virtual disks, or run a virtual machine using physical disks of an existing installation of an OS. In your case, you wouldn't be running it on the same computer if you have a Windows XP PC and now have a Mac.

[JasonInLasVegas]

Just to summarize (and hopefully simplify)

In order to get a bootable image of your current PC to run under VMWare on your Mac, peform the following steps:

a) create a virtual image of your PC OS drive (or just that parttition, specifically.) any way you choose, the Free VM Converter will do it, as will any number of supported backup solutions (Acronis True Image, for just one example.)

b) put the resulting image somewhere (on your local network) where the Mac can read it.

c) install VMWare Fusion on the Mac;

d) Within Fusion, Create and Save a new virtual PC with the specs you outlined above, and select the PC virtual disk image file you previously created (in step a) for this virtual PC to run using....you may want to move the PC image to the Mac disk for performance reasons before opening it.)

That should result in your PC running in a virtual environment you configure within Fusion on your Mac and with the full boot drive image from the original PC.

NOTE: Remember that the physical PC and the virtual PC now have the same OS license key, so you refresh one of them with a non-duplicated OS license to keep to the terms of your OS agreement!

Hope this helps,

[danmpem]

For sure. Thanks!