How to convert a physical os to a virtual one

[Stillie]

howsit Mense!

Im looking for a Open Source application that can convert a physical os to a virtual one (never knew any OS was physical, but hey)

Thanks in advance guys/gals

 

[HavocXphere]

[Ignore post & Read Gary's instead]

No you won't find an app for that. Too far outside the norm.

You might be able to hax it though with a straight raw data copy. Would recommend against it though. Windows set up all kinds of stuff at install that is catered to the hardware, so if you just copy & paste it into a VM everything will be pretty screwed.

Rather tell us what the background to your story is & maybe we can find a better solution.

 

[LazyLion]

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/convert-pc-into-virtual-machine/

http://blog.tigeryao.com/2006/howto-convert-physical-windows-os-to-vmware.html

http://lifehacker.com/291531/turn-a-physical-linux-computer-into-a-virtual-machine

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb740912.aspx

http://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_converter_windows_linux

http://www.petri.co.il/virtual_conv...to_virtual_machines_with_vmware_converter.htm

 

[HavocXphere]

Wow. Def learned something new there.

 

[ruan567]

I did it this week with Ghost 4 Linux for 2 machines (one with two hard drives and one with one)

Steps:

1) Set up a FTP server on a box with lots of space
2) Create a Virtual machine with no OS and disks matching the size of each of your physical disks on your VM box
3) Boot off your G4L CD/DVD on the source machine and create a images of your current disks and have it auto-transfer while it is creating to your FTP server
4) Start up your VM empty machine and mount the ISO for G4L as the cdrom
5) Restore from FTP over the network from the images to the new empty drive on your VM
6) Reboot your VM after unmounting the ISO for G4L

Works like a charm and G4L is fast!

 

[Mantis]

Do you want to for example have it installed on a flash drive and just plug in to any PC and boot into that system with all those apps installed etc, and possibly being able to access the PCs hdd?

I have been looking for something similar for a while but could not find something like that.


EDIT: damn I'm delayed. Took me like 10 mins to type the above in between work and you got answered in that time