Disc image of drive C and all progs, then installed on VM on Linux ?

cereberus · 2 Weeks Ago

The basic steps needed to create a vm of W10 on vmware in Linux are as follows:
(I am assuming you know how basics of how to use VMWare and Macrium Reflect). Many web guides to help.

The steps below are pretty generic and could be used on other vm tools e.g. Linux kvm and using other image tools like AOMEI backup or Hasleo Backup (so long as you can produce a Rescue iso)

1) Install Macrium Reflect (trial version is fine) on pc.

2) Make Macrium Reflect image backup of C Drive and hidden partitions to an (preferably) external hard usb drive.
Important: drive should be formatted exFAT so Linux can read it.

3) Create Macrium USB Rescue iso, and copy it to external usb drive as well.

4) Install VMWare in Linux

5) create a new virtual machine with a blank virtual disk (suggest size is 50 gb larger than files on C drive).
The drive must be gpt formatted if pc is UEFI or mbr formatted if pc uses older legacy bios.

6) Attach external usb drive to vm

7) Attach Macrium iso on external usb drive as a virtual CD to vm

8) start vmware booting to the virtual cd, starting Macrium Reflect winpe version

9) restore image from external usb drive to the blank virtual disk.

10) reboot vm, selecting to boot from virtual hard drive (may need to disconnect Macrium iso).

Be aware that the vm version of Windows will not activate - you would need to enter a valid retail licence key.

If you do not have an external usb hard drive, you can use an internal drive or partition but it must be formatted exFAT (not NTFS).

I did the above using KVM vm tool a while back using Ubuntu, and it worked fine (I had never used KVM but it did not take long to learn).

The key trick is the exfat formatting of drive containing image backup an iso so pc files can be read on Linux.

hsehestedt · 1 Week Ago

FYI, I have personal experience with that chipset and the same CPU as well. I have an MSI Z97 MB with the same CPU on it and Windows 11 loves that hardware. It runs exceptionally well.

That machine was, up until about 2 months ago, my Plex server. I finally replaced that system with something else, but Windows 11 still runs great on it.