Newbie ~ Virtual Machine, Old OS?

Mortymoose

Mortymoose

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My PC bombed, the motherboard went with that Atari guy into the night sky!

So I ordered a new PC, nothing fancy, i5, 4 Gb Ram, 1 Tb drive, more for a browsing the internet spreadsheet and the odd video.

But the wife, who's PC this was wanted her old PC back with all it's programs etc..... Now I know I cannot just switch the HD's around due to the way W7 installation is tied into the old hardware etc.... and I started to dig around...

First looking at dual boot, then VM.

Now I am the first to admit that I know nuttin' about VM and perhaps one of you wise guys can tell me the following:

The new PC will have W10 running. Can I install a VM (Virtualbox) , add the old OS HD and point the VM to the old drive and run the old W7 as a virtual machine? or is this not the way it works?

I thank you for educating me!

:)
 
First problem,

Now that we have VMware vCentre Converter installed on PC1, it’s time to actually convert the physical PC to a virtual image.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/how-to/how-to-virtualise-your-old-pc-2935718#Z8bHAEapqyXyLTDB.99
Click to expand...

Won't help me if the software needs to be installed on the same PC i want to make a virtual image of if that PC (Motherboard) is already screwed.... I kinda thought this would run like cloning softwared without the need for HD drivers... :erm:
 
The same problem with Hardware Activation will be present whether you pop the HDD into the new machine or onto the VM.

Virtualizing it won't be the problem, but then you might as well just copy it all across and re-install configure things.
 
What hardware were you running on the old machine, and what are you running on the new one? And which version of Windows 10 will you be running?
 
Mortymoose said:
Now I know I cannot just switch the HD's around due to the way W7 installation is tied into the old hardware etc....
Click to expand...
For licencing check if you have retail key or OEM. Run ProduKey from Nirsoft against old hard drive. If you have retail key, then write it down. If OEM, don't bother, use DAZ Loader on the new installation.

You have to pass licencing no matter whether you run native or in VM, so maybe running native Win7 is better. ;)
 
Mortymoose said:
First problem,



Won't help me if the software needs to be installed on the same PC i want to make a virtual image of if that PC (Motherboard) is already screwed.... I kinda thought this would run like cloning softwared without the need for HD drivers... :erm:
Click to expand...
Can be installed on any pc.. You just point it to the hdd you want to virtualize using VMware p2v
 
BigBear said:
Can be installed on any pc.. You just point it to the hdd you want to virtualize using VMware p2v
Click to expand...

I thought that VMware p2V had to be pointed at a working/operational drive attached to a MB (mine is blown) and not just a hard drive (either connected via uSB or as a secondary drive)
 
Just realized that the HD from the original machine was a dual boot grub loader which had LinuxMint installed with the W7 Os being a secondary choice.

Realized this when I plugged the HD into the new PC and it would not recognize the drive as a secondary drive. Therefore I should be able to change my boot order on the new PC and boot into LinuxMint, wonder if it will still give me the choice to boot in the old W7 ..... I know it won't work, but I am curious to see what errors it kicks out....
 
Windows 7 is unable to reconfigure itself on the completely different hardware. You have to boot in safe mode (F8), remove all drivers and reboot. Alternatively boot from Win7 ISO DVD/USB and select repair this installation. It will refresh OS installation, but keep user files intact. Windows 10 do offer similarly looking option, but it will destroy users configuration and data.
 
Last edited:
sajunky said:
Windows 7 is unable to reconfigure itself on the completely different hardware.
Click to expand...

use vmware free edition to create a backup that is restorable to different hardware, and then restore it to a VM
 
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