On Tue, 2022-10-25 at 06:51 -0400, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
Samuel Sieb writes:
> On 10/24/22 21:26, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
> > On 10/24/22 21:09, Slade Watkins via users wrote:
> > > On 10/24/22 11:38 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Is there a way to tape a native Windows hard
> > > > drive and port it to qemu-kvm?
> > >
> > > Hm. Did a bit of digging... this is all I could find.
> > >
> > >
https://manuel.kiessling.net/2013/03/19/converting-a-running-physical
> > > -
> > > machine-to-a-kvm-virtual-machine/
> >
> > Yikes!
>
> Yes, that's pretty crazy, but that's doing the conversion live
> without
> downtime and would have been somewhat easier with kpartx. But it
> also
> doesn't apply to Windows.
>
> I assume that you can shut the system down because otherwise I
> don't know
> how you would do it. The easiest way is just to make a raw disk
> image from
> the source hard drive and boot that. You can save a lot of space
> using a
> qcow image by using ntfsclone to copy the data since that only
> copies the
> used sectors. Windows will probably be somewhat unhappy about the
> hardware
> changing underneath, but should be able to get over that.
A forest must be missing here, hiding beyond all these trees. I
haven't done
this myself but I'd be surprised if it's not possible to set up a
qemu VM
that's pointing at an actual disk image, /dev/sdX, instead of an
image file.
This is definitely possible. I did it once, using Virtual Machine
Manager.
The real problem I see here is that the existing Windows install is
likely
to be an OEM install license that's tied to the hardware, and will
automatically deactivate itself when it wakes up in a new machine.
You'll
have to either deal with using deactivated Windows or pay for a
retail
license.
That could happen, In my case it wasn't an OEM license and I didn't
have a problem, but YMMV.
poc