Solved Creating VM from Macrium image

I'm using these instructions from Macrium -

1. Using Macrium Reflect take an image of your physical machine.
2. Once you have an image, create a Rescue Media ISO image.
3. Create a Virtual Machine using your preferred hypervisor (Hyper-V, VMware, Virtual box…), assigning to it a vCPU, Memory and a Virtual Hard Disk.
4. Boot the VM using the created Rescue Media ISO image.
5. From the booted Rescue Media restore your image on to the Virtual Hard Disk attached to your VM.
6. Without exiting the Rescue Media, run the ReDeploy option.
7. Detach the ISO from your VM and reboot it.

Using VMware I'm ok with 1 and 2 and at 3 I have created a vm but have not yet installed an OS. OK so far but I'm at a loss understanding how to proceed with 4 and am hoping one of the Macrium experts here has previously been down this road and can help.

this might help you: Macrium viBoot - Create Virtual Machine using Macrium Image

fixer said:

6. Without exiting the Rescue Media, run the ReDeploy option.

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This of course assumes you have paid for your Reflect, this Premium feature is not included in Free.

However, it's not really necessary. I've never yet found a situation where Windows 10/11 cannot sort out its own drivers when starting up on a different machine.

fixer said:

Using VMware I'm ok with 1 and 2 and at 3 I have created a vm but have not yet installed an OS. OK so far but I'm at a loss understanding how to proceed with 4 and am hoping one of the Macrium experts here has previously been down this road and can help.

Click to expand...

First you open your Macrium Reflect and use it to create the rescue media. Choose to create an ISO file. Use this ISO to boot your new VM.

SoFine409 said:

this might help you: Macrium viBoot - Create Virtual Machine using Macrium Image

Click to expand...

I'm using VMware rather than Hyper-V but on a quick scan through that looks promising. I'll study it, and thank you.

Bree said:

This of course assumes you have paid for your Reflect, this Premium feature is not included in Free.

However, it's not really necessary. I've never yet found a situation where Windows 10/11 cannot sort out its own drivers when starting up on a different machine.

Click to expand...

Except quite often if new pc has an nvme drive.

However - never in a virtual machine.

Bree said:

First you open your Macrium Reflect and use it to create the rescue media. Choose to create an ISO file. Use this ISO to boot your new VM.

How to Boot VM from ISO Images/CD/DVD in VMware Workstation/vSphere? - Vinchin Backup

This passage tells the benefits of booting VM from ISO and the detailed steps to boot VM from ISO images in VMware Workstation and vSphere.

www.vinchin.com

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The Vinchin link looks highly promising- I hope to be able to work on it a little later this evening. Thanks!

I'm using the paid for version btw.

fixer said:

I'm using VMware rather than Hyper-V but on a quick scan through that looks promising. I'll study it, and thank you.

Click to expand...

Macrium viBoot is a quick and easy way to boot a Macrium image as a VM but it doesn't support using VMWare. only Hyper-V and Virtualbox.

We had a bit of a domestic emergency last night so 'computers' had to take a back seat. I was able to get through step 4 though and boot the VM with the rescue media. Need a clear time window now to try and complete the exercise. Hopefully update you later.

Hi folks
You don't need the premium version of Macrium - assuming you have created a Stand alone bootable restore image of macrium and also have an image of your current physical system.

1) On ANY VM platform just create a Virtual disk for the target OS, and attach the disk containing the Macrium image as a physical disk

2) boot the stand alone macrium restore iso from WITHIN your new VM

3) restore the physical image

4) now remove the physical disk and reboot your VM

5) "Seemples" !!!! You might get activation problems but that's another issue -- Note also when creating the VM create the main disk (where you want your Windows system) as a SATA device in the VM wizard or whatever setup you use.

This sort of stuff is known as P2V or Physical to Virtual conversion and is really simple.

Cheers
jimbo

My aim with this was to have the Win 10 system on my old laptop available as a VM on my new Win 11 laptop. I have a good Macrium image of the old laptop's system and instructions published by Macrium (cf #1) and felt it should be pretty straightforward, and with the help from posters on this thread it has indeed been straightforward - trouble is it it doesn't boot.

After going through this twice I'm going to turn my attention to Hyper-V and Macrium viBoot, both of which present a learning curve, and hope for better results. BTW, would the fact the old laptop was MBR but the new GPT make any difference?

fixer said:

My aim with this was to have the Win 10 system on my old laptop available as a VM on my new Win 11 laptop ... it has indeed been straightforward - trouble is it it doesn't boot.

Click to expand...

Boot your VM from the Macrium ISO again. Select 'Restore > Fix Windows boot problems'.

Already tried that Bree, no change.

fixer said:

would the fact the old laptop was MBR but the new GPT make any difference?

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The type of the host system makes no difference, but the type of the Hyper-V VM does. If the VM you created is a Generation 2 VM then it is a UEFI/GPT machine. For a Legacy/MBR machine you need to have created a Generation 1 VM.

Can't see that option in the VMware new machine wizard but could well be why it isn't working. Unless it's a quick fix I am going to try Hyper-V.

fixer said:

Can't see that option in the VMware new machine wizard but could well be why it isn't working. Unless it's a quick fix I am going to try Hyper-V.

Click to expand...

Sorry, that was a Hyper-V screenshot. Forgot for a moment you were using VMWare.

See if this helps....

@Bree

Looks like my hopes for creating a VM of my previous laptop can't be fulfilled. Macrium viBoot has now dropped the option to select the generation and new Hyper-V VMs now are all GPT. Somewhere I had read that the generation of new VMs would be determined by the architecture of the machine viBoot was installed on but that appears to have gone too - I tried it on my BIOS/MBR desktop but new VMs are GPT, no choice.

As I've no other use for VMs on my laptop I'll stop wasting my time. It's disappointing but I do have several VMware VMs of earlier Windows versions on my desktop which all work just fine should I need them.

Anyway, thank you very much for your efforts.

fixer said:

Looks like my hopes for creating a VM of my previous laptop can't be fulfilled. Macrium viBoot has now dropped the option to select the generation and new Hyper-V VMs now are all GPT.

Click to expand...

No, not true. You can create either type of VM in Hyper-V. The screenshot I showed earlier was from a Windows 11 Pro UEFI/GPT host machine. Click New in the Actions pane and select Virtual Machine....



... follow the steps and you'll be offered the choice of a Generation 1 or Generation 2 machine. You need Generation 1 for a Legacy/MBR machine.

fixer said:

Somewhere I had read that the generation of new VMs would be determined by the architecture of the machine viBoot was installed on but that appears to have gone too...

Click to expand...

No, viBoot will create the appropriate generation Hyper-V VM to suit the image. Here are two I've just created, one is an image of a legacy/MBR machine and is generation 1, the other is a UEFI image and generation 2.

Yep, my error. I had forgotten that back in September I had used this old Thinkpad to see if I could install Win 11 on it, and having done so I obviously imaged it. So the image I was using to create a new VM was Win 11, not its previous Win 10, and that's why viBoot was creating a GPT machine rather than a MBR machine. I really must apologise for wasting your time.

I do have a previous image so I'll have another go, though not right away - after all this there are a few other things needing attention!