On 5/18/2010 12:00 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 08:56:58 -0700 > From: drew wymore <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [PLUG] Help with some partition trickery. > To: "General Linux/UNIX discussion and help, civil and on-topic" > <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > On Tue, May 18, 2010 at 8:28 AM, Scott Garman <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi all, >> >> I have a Windows installation that I'd like to convert to a VirtualBox >> VM so I can run it under Linux. This is possible under certain >> circumstances, as described here: >> >> http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows >> >> I have tested the process by taking a dd image of the 80 GB drive and >> successfully got it to boot within VirtualBox. However, the Windows >> installation is only 12 GB or so and the 80 GB disk space hit is too >> much of a problem for me. I'd like to instead have a 20 GB VM. >> >> So I revisited the original Windows hard drive and re-sized the first >> partition to 20 GB. Unfortunately, as the above web page mentions: >> >> 3. Either pull the drive from the windows machine or copy the data with >> a low level image tool (like dd) to a USB drive or other removable >> media. If making an image, DO NOT image just the partition, this will >> not work! >> >> And just to be certain, I tried imaging just the partition and verified >> the documentation is in fact correct. :) >> >> Since AFAIK once you start with a VM of a particular size, you cannot >> actually "shrink" it, I'd like to figure out if there is some way I can >> simulate this single 20 GB partition into being a hard drive with a >> valid partition table indicating the size of the drive is 20 GB. Is this >> possible, and how? >> >> I'm eager to learn more about how disk partitions work in the process, >> so point me at some documentation if you have a high confidence that it >> will allow me to resolve this problem. >> >> Thanks, >> >> Scott >> >> -- >> Scott Garman >> sgarman at zenlinux dot com >> _______________________________________________ >> PLUG mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug >> >> > Not tested but google seems to say this should work. > > http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24864/virtualbox-from-an-existing-partition > > Use vmware converter to convert the existing install into a vmware > instance, load said instance into Virtual Box (it's supported > apparently) ... profit??? > > Drew- >
scott, one other option (not as free as said virtualbox), if you are interested AND if your linux + windows partitions are on the SAME COMPUTER :: you _could_ use VMware for linux. when creating your VM upon adding/configuring the hard drive, tell it to "use a physical disk (for advanced users)" - for DEVICE select your PhysicalDrive# to use an entire drive, or in my case I just "use individual partitions" and select the m$ windows partition (I'm running win7x64 thru a VM, which is installed on my PhysicalDisk0, Patrition 0). VMware will ask you to create a .vmdk file (for me, only ~500 bytes) within yr linux environment, and your good to go. boot up yr new VM, and you can use your current windows install without issue, and any changes you make here and truly applied to yr current install as you are literally writing to the physical drive m$ windows is installed on. for some very specific howto's, just search for "raw vmware install" or "vmware physical disk" (without quotes). best of luck! PS: wassup drew! ;) _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list [email protected] http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
