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I run Windows XP SP3 Pro on my desktop PC and I want to create an image of its C Drive. I'd like to run this image in a virtual machine on VMware.

How can I do this?

  1. Install XP in VMware first – Create a restore point image from the desktop PC and restore that image in the virtual machine
  2. Create a live disk from my desktop's C drive and run it on VMware.
  3. Any other way?

Possible Solutions: Creating a Windows Virtual PC image from a Physical machine

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spt025
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  • I have used Paragon Drive Copy 10.0 Personal Edition for that in the past **for Virtual PC**. Maybe they have something for VMWare too? Not free, but cheap. – Jan Doggen Aug 24 '13 at 09:22
  • Vmware or Virtual Machine is not an issue... Can use either of them.. – spt025 Aug 24 '13 at 09:26
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    What's wrong with the answer in your link? – ZippyV Aug 24 '13 at 09:32
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    possible duplicate of [Creating a Windows Virtual PC image from a Physical machine](http://superuser.com/questions/87697/creating-a-windows-virtual-pc-image-from-a-physical-machine) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Aug 24 '13 at 13:53
  • In the link given above Windows Virtual PC is not at all nice software to use and doesn't even load the XP in W7. Tried all possible ways then only commenting – spt025 Aug 25 '13 at 04:45

2 Answers2

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I tried it using the answers given in the links above but they did not work properly and people here didn't understand the problem correctly – so I found a solution myself:

  1. When you copy your C: drive (Windows XP or Windows 7 installed drive) just use Disk2vhd (I got this from the above quoted answer)

  2. Use WinImage tool to convert VHD to VDMK – in the fourth step of the given link, go for the second option, else the first option would create a huge .vdmk image.

  3. Install VMware and use that vdmk file: How to open VMDK File?

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spt025
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  • did winimage, but it doesn't treat the image and maybe it should, so I got this BSOD about hard disk http://community.spiceworks.com/topic/419873-help-need-to-boot-a-vmdk-vhd-but-it-blue-screens one method not mentioned there that might get round the BSOD, I may try is sysprep – barlop Jul 16 '15 at 00:03
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I've done this before using VMWare VCenter Converter which is a free util from VMWare that will convert Windows or Linux computers to a VMWare image. I know this is an old question, but it's hard to beat the simplicity of this utility.

Gary Walker
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  • it's small but it looks like a client/server style app.. not as simple as it could be for the task, and it uses 3 different TCP ports. – barlop Jul 16 '15 at 02:57