Use Windows 7 installed on disk as VM disk

[EduardoMorrás]

Hi,

Past week we bought a server with windows7 preinstalled on a 256GB HD and an additional 1TB HD.

We installed FreeNAS 11 in a dedicated 8GB usb as suggested in documentation and use the additional disk for ZFS storage. We want to create a Windows VM that uses directly the windows 7 preinstalled disk. Is it possible/feasible? May work if I create a VM with a tiny disk with EasyBCD that starts windows7? I don't want to import the ntfs disk into zfs, only start Windows7 VM in it's own dedicated (and ntfs) disk.

Thanks

 

[Artion]

Well, Windows systems don't like changes in their hardware environment. Trying to boot it as VM it'll most likely not boot, even if you create a virtual disk copy of the drive containing the Windows 7 installation. (you can use the dd command to create a raw copy of the drive to an image file and use it for the VM)

 

[BR14]

There are disk migration utilities that will convert a physical install of Windows to a VM from Paragon, Macrium, and probably others.
The resulting VM should run in a Virtual Box jail - do not forget to install the guest additions.
Please keep in mind that you may have to re-activate Windows in a VM, and some OEM (pre-installed) versions will give you problems. Dell Windows, for example, will most likely not activate in a VM as it looks for specific BIOS content.
You can experiment with the pre-configured Windows VMs from Microsoft available at https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/
These are good for 30 days and can be re-armed several times.

Buena Suerte!