Windows 7 x86 to Win 8 x64 - Virtualization question

Ichneumon

Ichneumon

Lord of the Flies
Staff member
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So, i'm ready to replace my Win 7 32 bit install with either Win 7 x64 or Win 8 x64. I have upgraded my memory to 16GB and I want to be able to start working with more environments with virtualization.

My system is a i5-2500K, p8z68-v/gen3 mobo, 16gb ram, HD+Intel SRT cache setup.

I have LOTS of stuff set up on my current Win 7 installation because I've used it for years for my work as well as for gaming. I've not moved to x64 since I would have to reinstall and, more importantly re-configure everything again.

I'm now ready to do that, but I want to take a virtual image of my current install. I have Acroni TrueImage 2013 and have system images of my system, but I want to take my current Win7 system and make a virtual machine out of it. My questions are:

1) Win 8 now supports full Hyper-V client functionality - what would it take to turn my win 7 install into a Hyper-V VM instance on a new Win 8 x64 install?

2) If question 1) is a mess - and if I decided i would stick with Win 7 x64 (for all the UI reasons Win8 is a pain) for now, what would be the best/recommended way to run my current win 7 as a VM? I've played with vmware and virtualbox in the past, but never at great length. I understand it is possible to convert Acronis images to various VM formats, but none of what i've read so far have made it seem terribly straightforward....

Thoughts?
 
There's two steps here, one is converting the machine to a vm disk format, the other is converting it to a working VM. You're right that Acronis can export a backup to VM format, and the next step is to convert it to vm which is basically the infrastructure around the virtual hard disk to make big rocket go now.

I sit on the VMware side of the fence, so to convert a running work station I'd use VMware vCenter Convertor Standalone, the docs and how to's from VMware step you through it simply enough. In essence you snapshot the machine while it's running and make a set of VM files elsewhere (i.e. on a network storage drive or something) and then you can test it out before you nuke and pave over the original.

Vmware player is free and quite powerful, probably all you'll need for running a few local VM's for testing and compatiblity reasons.

Hyper V has yet to convince me of its reason to exist, and I just havent spent any time on KVM/XEN/Virtualbox etc.
 
Thanks Jim. I'll play around with the vcenter converter and vmware player. just downloaded the most recent versions.

Now Win 7 or Win 8... hmmm :)
 
Ichneumon said:
Now Win 7 or Win 8... hmmm :)
Click to expand...
I installed Win8 on my desktop rig this month. While I'd initially planned to configure it as a dual boot setup with Win7, I ultimately (for now) scrapped that idea to 1) reduce complexity / OS sharing issues and 2) force myself to really give Win8 a fair shake.

My experience with Win8 has been mostly positive, notably excepting the ui - which I still believe needs much tweaking to make it an upgrade for desktop / non-touch users. However, I ultimately do not believe the start ui should keep people from migrating to Win8, especially considering there are 3rd party solutions for bringing the old start menu (basic or enhanced) back. If you already were satisfied with an existing Win7 x64 install, it might be a tougher call - but since you're facing investing considerable time nuking and paving, might as well move forward at the same time.
 
It worked. Amazingly well!

My entire old Win7 32bit system is a VM I can easily run on my now Win 8 x64 machine. I did have to do some fiddling, as newer Trueimage backup formats aren't supported by the VMWare standalone converter. I wasted a bunch of time trying to convert a Trueimage backup to windows backup and it still didn't work right with the converter.

In the end I took a direct image of my running Win 7 system with the vCenter Converter Standalone. I tested it in the Vmware Player on Win 7. And when everything worked, I wiped my system and put Win 8 x64 on it (along with memory upgrade to 16gb). That VM works great with the Vmware Player in Win 8 and with 16GB I have plenty of memory to assign to it and run it in the background if I need to pull something from the image and have the rest of my system fully functional.

I of course also had multiple redundant system image backups in case something went wrong or Win 8 drove me batty.

After a couple days with a clean system getting everything installed and up to speed, I have to say Win 8 is a nice operating system. I still don't like the new start menu. I have cleaned all the stupid **** from it I don't need and tediously dragged the useful icons for me around so they make some kind of sense... but it is still an ugly cludge.

I am running StartIsBack which is the best "start menu" fix for Win 8 I think. That being said, i am finding it isn't so much needing the button back as some of the tweaks it lets me do to boot straight to desktop and adjust some of the hotspots and gestures to get in my way less as a keyboard/mouse user. The new start menu can be functional - it just is nothing like an elegant solution to what it is trying to accomplish IMO.

With that, running dual monitors like I do, Win 8 is very good in that respect. I love it's built in use of the taskbar across the desktops showing which applications are where. I also am finding I actually like snapping the taskbar to the outer left and right edges of my two monitors - freeing up more vertical space - and still giving me all the useful information about everything I have running. That actually works well (except for my muscle-memory reach to the old start-menu button location) and is not a taskbar layout I liked in Win 7. In that configuration of the task bars, the new start menu actually works well for launching frequently used applications and I may come around to that for full-time use... maybe...

The UI in Win 8 suffers the most from its in-your-face change and frankly its stark blocky-ness with no ability to customize it. It's the same problem I have with Office 2013. It's simply ugly - and there is nothing you can do about it. No skins, no color changes, no anything - and that is what rankles me more than anything about Win 8 and the "new" Microsoft.

One of the great things about Windows over OS X or even (for they layman anyway) Linux, is it's ability to easily customize your system to work like you do, and to provide you many ways to do whatever things you do to be productive. Multiple actions/shortcuts to get you to a particular function/application/activity you regularly do, able to customize the look of your system to be most comfortable to your likes, etc. I feel a lot of that is taken away with this new push to shove Metro and the block-white Office 2013 down everyone's throats. It isn't so much the dislike of the design choices that rankles, its that choice to modify it is taken away and in some cases actively made more difficult by Microsoft. That is not an improvement in my world...

With all that said, I'll be sticking with Win 8, and with options like StartIsBack (or Start8 or ClassicShell if you prefer) I feel like for those who really can't stand the new look and changes that are being forced, you can still enjoy the added benefits of Win 8 while taking some of the sting out of it...

That is a big change from what I expected I would be feeling on the other side of this excercise....
 
caveman-jim said:
There's two steps here, one is converting the machine to a vm disk format, the other is converting it to a working VM. You're right that Acronis can export a backup to VM format, and the next step is to convert it to vm which is basically the infrastructure around the virtual hard disk to make big rocket go now.

I sit on the VMware side of the fence, so to convert a running work station I'd use VMware vCenter Convertor Standalone, the docs and how to's from VMware step you through it simply enough. In essence you snapshot the machine while it's running and make a set of VM files elsewhere (i.e. on a network storage drive or something) and then you can test it out before you nuke and pave over the original.

Vmware player is free and quite powerful, probably all you'll need for running a few local VM's for testing and compatiblity reasons.

Hyper V has yet to convince me of its reason to exist, and I just havent spent any time on KVM/XEN/Virtualbox etc.
Click to expand...

Dammit Jim, I'm a noob, not a nerd :bleh2:
 
caveman-jim said:
There's two steps here, one is converting the machine to a vm disk format, the other is converting it to a working VM. You're right that Acronis can export a backup to VM format, and the next step is to convert it to vm which is basically the infrastructure around the virtual hard disk to make big rocket go now.

I sit on the VMware side of the fence, so to convert a running work station I'd use VMware vCenter Convertor Standalone, the docs and how to's from VMware step you through it simply enough. In essence you snapshot the machine while it's running and make a set of VM files elsewhere (i.e. on a network storage drive or something) and then you can test it out before you nuke and pave over the original.

Vmware player is free and quite powerful, probably all you'll need for running a few local VM's for testing and compatiblity reasons.

Hyper V has yet to convince me of its reason to exist, and I just havent spent any time on KVM/XEN/Virtualbox etc.
Click to expand...

I agree.

After going back into an environment with Hyper V I just see no reason to ever use this over VMware. I've already converted one of the Servers to ESXi 5 U1 because I just missed VMware and how powerful it is compared to Hyper-V. My boss lacks virtualization experience and thinks Hyper V is the greatest thing ever.
 
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