Vista - cloning current system to virtual PC?

Hi,

I read that using the Complete PC Backup feature in Vista you can
create an .vhd that can be mounted in a Virtual PC 2007 virtual
machine. This made me think that I might be able to clone my current
system within a virtual machine so that I could test install
applications or system changes on something resembling my current
state without having to risk my setup or constantly restore from
backups.

I managed to get the backup done and found the .vhd file. I moved its
location and changed permissions so that I'd be able to read and write
to it without elevation then set it up as the primary drive on a new
virtual machine. The machine failed to boot so I loaded the virtual
machine into the Vista setup CD and ran a startup repair. It got
further, but then it would fail with a message saying Drive Read Error
and again fail to boot.

Is what I'm trying to do possible or when they say you can use a
backup as a virtual drive within a virtual machine, is that only if
you want to use it as a secondary drive?

I also thought about trying to restore the backup onto an empty
virtual drive from within the virtual machine but I don't know how to
get the backup image into the virtual machine in a way that would be
accessible. I thought I'd use shared folders but then apparantly you
need to install some addiitonal software from within the virtual
machine and that appears to require a running Windows OS. So would I
have to actually do a full install before I could do a restore or is
there an easier way?

Thanks.

"T Magritte" <thisisnotanapple@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:c915727d-5d33-42f9-a1ad-73f2d477e493@xxxxxxWhere did you hear that this was possible? It has been discussed in this
group before and the general opinion has always been that it is not
possible.

The Vista backup certainly used the .vhd format the backup file, but it
does not create a bootable image.

On Jul 26, 5:47*am, "Bill Grant" <not.available@xxxxxx> wrote:I probably misunderstood what I read. Doing another search I found
instructions how to mount a backup image so files can be extracted in
a virtual machine but not how to boot from it. I had hoped, however,
that the repair boot utility in the Vista startup disc would make the
bootable but I get these read errors instead. On principle I don't
understand why the backup image shouldn't be bootable or be able to be
made bootable.

What happens if you want to restore the image to a real harddrive.
Will that not be bootable? The one time I did try to do this it didn't
work because the restore utility didn't like the fact that the target
disk wasn't partitioned in exactly the same way as the source disk. I
wonder if the completepc backup is of any use at or if it's just a
danger giving people a false sense of security that they have a system
backup when in reality they'll never be able to restore it...

But back on topic, do you know if third party virtualiation software
(VMWare or Parallels desktops) can do a virtual clone of a running
system?

Thanks,
T.

"T Magritte" <thisisnotanapple@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:72f21a62-e9a5-4660-a35e-9eb70f5d3d01@xxxxxxYou can do it with VPC using a third party solution like Acronis True
Image with universal restore. Universal restore takes care of the different
"hardware" between the physical machine
and the emulated hardware in a vm.

On Jul 26, 6:55*pm, "Bill Grant" <not.available@xxxxxx> wrote:Thanks, I'll give that a try.

T.

On Jul 26, 6:55*pm, "Bill Grant" <not.available@xxxxxx> wrote:I tried Acronis True Image 11 but it's not compatible with Windows
running under bootcamp on a mac (which is one of my configurations) so
it's not of much use. I also tried Symantec Ghost 14 but it's no
better than Vista's complete PC backup in this regard. Symantec Backup
Exec System Restore Desktop 8.01 (there's a mouthful) did work better.
It has a "restore anywhere" feature so you can activate that to
restore to different hardware or within a virtual machine. Even better
it comes with a utility that will convert a backup image into a VMware
or VirtualPC virtual harddrive (implimenting the restore anywhere
feature) so you don't even need to do a restore from within the
virtual machine. You can do a backup of your current system drive,
convert it to an .ahk file then mount it as the primary hard drive in
Virtual PC. The first boot takes a while as it has to install new
drivers but it seems to work pretty well. Another one that seems to
have similar features but I haven't tried is ShadowProtect Backup.

I'm a little disappointed at the performance of Vista in the Virtual
PC. From what I'd read I'd expected fairly decent performance but I
found it to be very sluggish. I image most of the sluggishness is poor
video emulation performance. Maybe processor intensive tasks perform
better but basic window manipulation is pretty slow. Is there any
significant improvement in performance using Vmware or Parallel's
offerings versus Virtual PC 2007? Do any of those support Aero glass
in the VM? I did try Vmware Fusion 2 beta under OSX and it didn't seem
any better but I haven't tried any of the other VM software under
Vista.

Thanks,
T.

"T Magritte" <thisisnotanapple@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f04cba16-bb2e-463b-b3d9-fffabcef8264@xxxxxxWhat are you running as the host OS? On what hardware? How much memory
are you allocating to the vm?

Vista doesn't run all that well even on a hard metal machine unless you
give it plenty of RAM, a fast processor and good video. With at least 2G and
a slick 2-core CPU and a good video card it runs well. You are unlikely to
get that from any form of virtualization.

I run Vista as the host and run other client OSs under VPC 2007 on Vista.

On Jul 29, 8:58*pm, "Bill Grant" <not.available@xxxxxx> wrote:Hi,

Didn't notice there was a reply...

I'm running Vista as the host on a Dual core2 with 4 GB RAM (but using
32bit OS, so only about 3.2 is useable). I allocate about 50% (1.5 GB)
to the virtual machine. I figure that's the best compromise. It's got
a geofrece 8600M GT. That's on my laptop. I've also tried on my
Desktop, which is a quad core2 with 4GB and a geforce 9600GT but it's
about the same as far as the VM performance. I do notice that Virtual
PC doesn't seem to make use of more than 1 core.

I suppose I could use XP as the guest OS but one of the main reasons I
want to start using VMs is to test install new or unknown software
before putting it on my main OS. So I'd rather see if there are any
issues with Vista in the VM environment. Are there any settings that
would significantly improve Vista performance in a VM. What's the best
memory configuration to use (the 'recommended' 512 MB is a joke)?
Should I completely disable aero?

Thanks!

1.5GB should give you reasonable performance in a vm. As you state, the
vm will only use one core.

What video card you have in the host does not affect the vm. It will
always use the emulated S3 card which is pretty basic. It certainly won't
run Aero.

"T Magritte" <thisisnotanapple@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:c915727d-5d33-42f9-a1ad-73f2d477e493@xxxxxx
You'd be better off using www.sandboxie.com for such tests, rather
than a full Virtual PC environment.