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-mac...

I'll keep looking around for you... -srw

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-mac... > > 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.

On 10/25/22 00:27, ToddAndMargo via users wrote: > On 10/24/22 22:08, Samuel Sieb wrote: >> 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-mac... >>> >>> 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. > > Would you have a link to a "how to"? I don't.  Can you move the windows hard drive to the VM system, maybe using a USB enclosure?  Or do you have enough space to copy the entire drive to an image?  What is your goal here?

On Tue, 2022-10-25 at 12:18 -0700, ToddAndMargo via users wrote: > A customer approached me about a specialty application > (aircraft transponder tracking) that needs Linux. But > wanted to put it on an old computer with windows on > it. He asked if you could dual boot. I said yes, > but it is froth with issues. > > So I was thinking of porting his Windows to qemu-kvm > if he really wanted Windows. But better yet, just > put in new hard drive and pack up his old drive in > a static bag for safe keeping. He has several > computers, so he can run his windows stuff of > various other computers. When I first got into Linux I set a dual-boot system, but I soon realised a few things: I rarely used Windows any more, and rebooting was a huge pain. It interrupts whatever you're doing, and adds big delays. I never got into virtual computing, or emulation, my PCs were too underpowered for that. And I haven't used Windows for probably over 15 years, so hadn't tried since. But, unless you really needed to cram everything onto one PC, it was usually far more efficient to have completely standalone PCs for each one (operationally, and debugging-wise).

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. 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. _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users(a)lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-leave(a)lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue

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.

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.

Is there a way to tape a native Windows hard drive and port it to qemu-kvm?

On 10/25/22 07:23, Go Canes wrote: > Also, before even starting, you should confirm the target machine has > hardware support for virtualization, and that it is enabled. Oh poop. Did not think of that. Thank you!

It is an OLD Windows 7 machine. There would be no support for virtualization. The customer's application is a 24/7 app anyway, so he would never be able to dual boot.

A problem you could run into doing this is licensing. WIndows uses a variety of methods to detect if a valid product key is being run on multiple machines, which includes some checks on the hardware. Since a virtual machine is never going to have virtual hardware that exactly matches your PC, there's a good chance that, even if you succeed in getting your native install to run under a hypervisor, Windows may well consider it an unlicensed copy. I recently had a Windows 10 VM that this happened to when I just upgraded Virtual Box, didn't touch the Windows VM at all. --Greg