Recover a Drive Image from Host machine USB drive to VM guest m.

Bree said:

@ittiandro here is an alternative way to make the image available for restore that does not require networking. It's a little more complicated though. We are going to make another virtual disk, copy the image file to it, then attach the virtual disk as a second drive for the VM.

First make a new virtual disk. Open Disk Management. Click Action > Create VHD. Choose to make an expanding .VHD, and a folder and filename for it (C:\temp\images.vhd in my example). Make sure you create a .vhd that is large enough to hold your image file.

Attachment 384569

Next you need to initialize the new virtual drive. In Disk Management right-click on the name of the new drive, the grey box to the left.

Attachment 384570

Choose to initialise as MBR. Once initialised you can right-click on the drive to format it and assign a drive letter.

Attachment 384571

Now copy your system image to the drive using File Explorer. When done you need to detach the virtual drive, you can do this in Disk Management.

Attachment 384572

Now we can attach this .vhd to the VirtualBox VM. In VirtualBox Manager select Tools and click the Add Disk icon (green + sign). Browse and find your .vhd file.

Attachment 384576

Then open Settings for your VM. In Storage select the Controller: SATA and click the right most of the two 'add' icons to add a new hard drive.

Attachment 384579

Now when you boot the VM from the recovery ISO you can browse to this 2nd hard drive and select your image.


Attachment 384580

Once you have successfully completed the restore you can detach the images.vhd from the VM, then delete the .vhd file now it has served its purpose.

Bree,
Thanks for your input. I have been away for a couple of days. I'll look into your new suggestions shortly . At the same time, I have been to inch may way through a little bit..and let you know.
Thanks

Ittiandro

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Bree said:

@ittiandro here is an alternative way to make the image available for restore that does not require networking. It's a little more complicated though. We are going to make another virtual disk, copy the image file to it, then attach the virtual disk as a second drive for the VM.

First make a new virtual disk. Open Disk Management. Click Action > Create VHD. Choose to make an expanding .VHD, and a folder and filename for it (C:\temp\images.vhd in my example). Make sure you create a .vhd that is large enough to hold your image file.

Attachment 384569

Next you need to initialize the new virtual drive. In Disk Management right-click on the name of the new drive, the grey box to the left.

Attachment 384570

Choose to initialise as MBR. Once initialised you can right-click on the drive to format it and assign a drive letter.

Attachment 384571

Now copy your system image to the drive using File Explorer. When done you need to detach the virtual drive, you can do this in Disk Management.

Attachment 384572

Now we can attach this .vhd to the VirtualBox VM. In VirtualBox Manager select Tools and click the Add Disk icon (green + sign). Browse and find your .vhd file.

Attachment 384576

Then open Settings for your VM. In Storage select the Controller: SATA and click the right most of the two 'add' icons to add a new hard drive.

Attachment 384579

Now when you boot the VM from the recovery ISO you can browse to this 2nd hard drive and select your image.


Attachment 384580

Once you have successfully completed the restore you can detach the images.vhd from the VM, then delete the .vhd file now it has served its purpose.

Thanks, Bree.

Excellent. It looks even easier than the the Network solution. I I am however blocked at 384576 because I cannot get the TOOLS option for the Add Disk icon. THere are only two TOOLS menus : Machine Tools and Global Tools . None of them has an ADD Disk icon. May be it is becaise I have an older VBox v. 5.2.44 and the lay out is different. The more recent versions won't work because they are for 64-bits.

Thanks

Ittiandro

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Bree,
I found the way to ADD the Virtual drive. It is somehow different. In my older VBox version there is no specific TOOLS option for this : the +ADD icon is just next to the SATA controller in the Storage Settings.
When I start the machine, though, I am still getting the Blue error screen and I cannot proceed.
Strange, though, because this Blue screen doesn’t always come up, throughout my several attempts to get this recovery working.
I have done a memory diagnostic check and there is no problem reported.
If the blue screen error issue is solved, ( which I begin to doubt…) and I can get to the final recovery point, I am still not clear about where the ISO backup image will have to be restored to by Reflect. Usually, if it is a restore on the same PC , I will tell Reflect the destination partition. In this case we are speaking of virtual drives and I don’t know how to go about it.
As a last resort, I am attaching the settings summary of my VBox, just in case there is something wrong there.

Ittiandro