Convert Windows.old into a virtual pc

Question

I have rebuilt my Windows 7 ultimate operating system. I performed the rebuild over the top of its self so it automatically moved my old operating system to a Windows.old directory.

I would like to try and create a virtual pc of my old installation. I have created a vhd file, mounted it and copied across the contents of windows.old. What additional steps do I need to do to make this vhd boot into my old windows?

Answer 1

I managed to do this in the end, here is an overview of what I did.

• Create a vhd and mount it (see guide)
• Copy the contents of Windows.old to the mounted vhd
• Installed Virtual Box (Microsoft Virtual PC cannot cope with 64 bit virtual clients)
• Unmounted the vhd from windows and used it to create a new Virtual Box instance
• Kicked off the new instance and booted to a windows 7 install cd
• Using the Windows 7 boot cd recovery options I opened a new command prompt
• Using Diskpart.exe I set my primary partition to be Active (see guide)
• Used Bootrec.exe to create a new MBR and rebuild the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store (see guide)

I was then able to boot into my vhd. My old windows 7 install then went through a number of automated driver updates due to the new virtual hardware configuration. After a few reboots it was fine though. Note, I did need to reactivate windows though due to the hardware changes.

Hope this helps anyone else trying to do the same.