Convert partition to Virtual Disk image

Question

I have a 250 GB HD with a XP partition. I partitioned the XP Box to 112 GB, since the max Virtual PC can load is 127 GB.

I have a new motherboard and can't load into the partition, so I am using Windows 7.

I have tried using WinImage to create the image but it creates an image of the whole disc (250 GB) and will not load on Virtual PC cause of the size limit.

What would be best to convert to VHD correctly?

Solution 1

Try the free VMware vCenter Converter, which requires the machine to be bootable.

Another possibility is Paragon Backup & Recovery 2011 (Advanced) Free, using the P2V Migration wizard, which can, according to the documentation, convert any partition to a VM.

Solution 2

disk2vhd from SysInternals.

EDIT: But this assumes you can boot into the partition. You might want to try Acronis in that case.

SECOND EDIT: It's worth a try - if you can somehow convince the VHD that the XP partition is the one to boot from, you might get away with using disk2vhd after all.

Comments

[Rick]

Tried that and it created a VHD file 113GB in size, but when I run Virtual PC it says: "The Virtual hard disk image is too large for the IDE bus. Make sure that all virtual hard disk images connected to the IDE bus are not greater than 127.5 GB"

[alan]

I hear that Hyper V can handle larger files. Check it out, it's free: microsoft.com/hyper-v-server/en/us/how-to-get.aspx

[Rick]

Don't I need to install this software on the Hard Drive I want to convert into an image? Because I cannot boot up Windows on that Hard Drive anymore, with the hardware I currently have.

[harrymc]

Booting the disk on another computer will deactivate the Windows license, unfortunately. So I added another possibility which might work, as long as the disk is readable (but keeping the Windows license is not guaranteed).

[Rick]

Paragon Backup & Recovery 2011 (Advanced) Free Worked perfectly! Thanks!!