It is possible to transform a physical machine to a virtual machine (p2v) using Shadow Protect.
- First download and build the StorageCraft Recovery Environment CD image :
http://downloads.servosity.com/sp/Current/ReBuilder_Setup_1.1.6.0.exe - Create the base virtual machine based on your physical machine's hardware. You should give it as much RAM and CPU as possible match your physical environment. You should also create a virtual hard drive at least the size of your physical hard drive. If you have a 280 GB hard drive in the physical machine, use at least a 280 GB virtual HD.
- Configure your new VM to boot from either the CD image you burned in step 1 or most hypervisors also give you the option of booting from an ISO image as well.
- Boot into the StorageCraft Recovery Environment (SCRE)
- If you will need SCRE to access the network for your image- click OK, other wise you can click cancel to continue without networking
- The SCRE interface is loaded when you see the main menu.
- If you are installing into a new virtual machine, you must first initialize your new virtual disk. Click the "Disk Map" tab to view your disks
- In this case, disk 0 is my new virtual disk. Right click and choose create primary partition. SCRE will indicate that you need to reboot to read information from the new disk.
- Once you have rebooted, follow steps 4 and 5 until you are back at the screen show above in step 6. Click "Restore Wizard" and click "Next"
- Select the first otion "Restore" and click Next
- Browse and select the backup image you want to restore from:
- Select the destination to restore to - this should be the VM disk you just formatted.
- Make sure "Finalize the volume at the end of this restore" is checked and click Next
- Specify the restoration options. Make sure "Use Hardware Independent Restore" is checked, then click "Advanced" and confirm the settings to match below. Leave the drop down with "LOW ..." selected. Check "De-activate Windows" to change the windows registration settings on the new virtual machine. This can cause the original host to deactivate. Click Next to return to the "Specify the restoration options" and then click "Next"
- Confirm the summary and click "Finish"
- This will launch the restore process and indicate the estimated remaining time.
- Once this is complete with the restore, it will then attempt to inject the new hardware specs into the existing windows registry. Vmware drivers are pretty well supported, so you may or may not see additional dialogs before the wizard finishes up.
- When complete, choose File -> Exit to exit the SCRE disk and reboot. When you reboot, you should be greeted by the windows screen indicating "Windows did not shut down successfully". This is normal due to the new environment and changes.
Choose "Start Windows Normally" to continue. You should be taken to the windows login screen. Login as you would to the physical machine. - Upon logging it, Windows will find and detect new hardware. There may be some instances where the original physical hardware cannot be duplicated properly in the virtual machine environment - such as a laptop's wireless adapters - which VMware may not have a corresponding option. There may be some manual tweaks that you will need to make to the new virtualized machine.
- If you had chosen the option to de-register windows, you may see a message on the virtual machine regarding the registration status of the VM.