Re: [OT] Can I make a virtual image of this PC ?

[Jamie Whitehorn <jamie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Is it possible to make a virtual image of this, ie the PC I'm
using
> now and then load/run that in say VMWare on another PC , or even
> this one ?
Definitely - as Mark said have a look at the VMware Converter. We did it
ye=
sterday on an IBM laptop using the free version (hot conversions only) and
=
it took about 15 mins to convert a 15GB C: drive (50% full) to a running
vi=
rtual image on a VMware ESX server. I strongly suspect the conversion
speed=
was limited by the laptop only having a 100Mb network connection. If you h=
ave gigabit it will probably be faster. The conversion went very smoothly,
=
especially when you consider that the laptop uses IDE disks and ESX only
em=
ulates SCSI disks. All the relevant drives were substituted properly etc.

There are some things to consider if your virtualising a PC. Does it have
o=
dd expansion cards in it (eg frame grabbers etc)? Does it do a lot of I/O?
=
Is it doing something that is very graphics intensive? Is it doing
somethin=
g that is very CPU intensive? If the answer to any of these is yes, it may
=
not be a good candidate for virtualisation, BUT the beauty of this is it
co=
sts you nothing (other than some disk space) to try, so if your in doubt
gi=
ve it a go and see what happens.=20

> If you can then what happens re Windows licensing - if for example
> you have two XP images with the same license activation ? I'm not
> looking to circumvent this , as I have spare licences, but I would
> rather not have to build up a new system either as I have so much
> installed. ISTR I can change the original license to another
> anyway... but what if I dont ?
I am fairly certain that from Microsoft's perspective the key is: are you
r=
unning the systems at the same time? If you are, you need to licence both
s=
eparately. Originally Microsoft made themselves really unpopular by saying
=
that all virtual images you created with an MS O/S on them had to be
licens=
ed whether they were running or not, however with the introduction of
their=
own virtualisation system they changed their stance to say that only runni=
ng systems had to be licensed separately.=20

HTH, Jamie
=20
=93Sometimes I think the surest sign of intelligent life in the universe
is=
the fact that none of it has tried to visit us." - Calvin & Hobbes
=20