#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc drivers#
#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc update#
#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc archive#
#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc software#
#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc download#

For instance, if you have purchased Software Assurance for all of your Windows 7 desktops and want to move them into a VDI environment, you could craft a specialized computer login script that relied on “Disk2vhd” to capture the physical Windows 7 systems in your organization. The primary purpose of using the command-line version would be if you need to script this. You can continue to use the system during the copy process. If you make any changes to the drive’s data after that, they will not be saved.

After that, it will begin the process of copying out the data. The software will first indicate that it is creating the VSS snapshot. Once you’re satisfied with all of your selections, click the “Create” button. It does not matter if the guest operating system is older than 2012. Unless you know that you’ll be using the generated file on Windows/Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 or earlier, check the box to Use Vhdx. If keeping the option for VSS snapshots, it’s perfectly acceptable to create the VHDX(s) on the same drive that you’re copying as long as there is enough room. The button at the end of that line with the triple dots serves as a browse button. You’ll first need to select a destination in the “VHD File Name” text box. If the system that you’re creating a VHDX from has this partition, you’ll need to include it if you wish for the VHDX to be bootable. That screenshot was taken from a Windows 2012 R2 computer some older operating systems will not have the “System Reserved” partition. You’ll be presented with a screen similar to the following:

Using Disk2VHD in GUI ModeĬopy the “disk2vhd.exe” file to the computer whose drive(s) is/are to be converted and double-click on it from that computer. I/O is paused for the conversion (if you choose the option for VSS) but many applications won’t know to flush active buffers. The second is via disk2vhd command-line, which is useful if you need to use scripting for such things as handling large batches.īefore starting, shut down all applications and stop any vital services especially if the machine to be converted runs any databases.

#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc download#

Once you download disk2vhd, there are two ways to use the Disk2VHD tool for P2V in Hyper-V. Anything that happens to the system after the Disk2VHD process begins will be lost. This also prevents anyone from using those services. Disk2VHD essentially captures an application-consistent backup, but it will have superior results if all applications are closed when it runs.

Stop as many services as possible, especially any that run databases.

Optional: Remove the system from the domain.

#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc drivers#

RAID drivers are a common paint point but removing them will render your system unusable. If the P2V fails, you don’t want to be left with an unusable source system.

Remove any unnecessary software and drivers, but do not make any changes to the system’s vital configuration that cannot be easily redone.

Verify that there aren’t any problems with the system.

Perform a complete backup to a safe location.

A few things that you should do to prepare: The older the operating system, the greater the risk. It’s a hard fact that physical to virtual conversions are fraught with peril.

#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc update#

Jeffery Hicks has also written a PowerShell script that will retrieve and update the entire Sysinternals catalog. You can also extract the “Disk2vhd.chm” file this is the software’s help manual.

#Disk2vhd prepare for use in virtual pc archive#

Simply extract the “disk2vhd.exe” file from the ZIP archive and place it on the system whose drives you wish to convert. There is no actual “installation” of this product. Sysinternals offers this tool as a free download, allowing an easy way to download disk2vhd. Download the Hyper-V Sysinternals Disk2VHD Hyper-V P2V The operating system is not prepared to run inside a virtual environment, nor is any cleanup work done on the source system to improve the odds of a successful migration. It is very important to understand that this is not a true physical-to-virtual conversion. It reads the boot information, partition information, and data regions of a physical hard drive and produces a corresponding VHD or disk2vhd VHDX file. Sysinternals Disk2VHD is a software solution provided by Sysinternals. With the Sysinternal’s Disk2VHD, organizations have a freely available tool to convert physical hard disks to the VHD and VHDX formats supported by Microsoft Hyper-V. However, some systems do survive the transition well. It is recommended that you use some application-level migration rather than trying to convert a physical operating system installation directly.

Bringing a physical operating environment into Hyper-V can be a challenging task, especially without a tool like Microsoft disk2vhd.