Create image file from physical windows server

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Virtualization
1

Hi,

Running SLES11sp1_64 with Xen virtualization.

Besides using Platespin, is there an alternative way to create/migrate a
Windows server to an image file that I can import into my virtual
environment as I want to virtualize most of my Windows 2003/2008 servers.

Regards
John

2

John,

It appears that in the past few days you have not received a response to your
posting. That concerns us, and has triggered this automated reply.

Has your issue been resolved? If not, you might try one of the following options:

Be sure to read the forum FAQ about what to expect in the way of responses:
http://forums.suse.com/faq.php

If this is a reply to a duplicate posting, please ignore and accept our apologies
and rest assured we will issue a stern reprimand to our posting bot.

Good luck!

Your SUSE Forums Team
http://forums.suse.com

3

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Use the ‘dd’ command. Boot to a Linux LiveCD (windows just cannot
handle practical things like this) and do something like the following
(You’ll need a separate drive to which you can write the data; also note
that this is insanely slow):

dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/bigdrive/windows.raw bs=1048576

When done you may be able to use this file as an actual disk image or
you could boot into a new virtual machine with a LiveCD and restore it
by reversing the parameters.

There may be more-efficient uses of ‘dd’; Google would know.

Good luck.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.18 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/
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=Cc74
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----