Simple way of moving / copying a HYPER-V virtual machine to another computer or disk(s)

Hi all
Why on earth do Ms and other people posting about this make essentially a SIMPLE process so complicated -- using the Replicate or export / import virtual machine facility often fails and for home users who don't need to move a running VM then the process is an absolute pile of "Little round objects".

100% SIMPLE WAY.

1) Copy the virtual disk file(s) to target -- other machine / other disk(s) etc.
2) create a NEW Hyper-V VM and specify use existing virtual disk(s). Ensure of course same generation as the original VM.
3) Create new NIC ("Virtual switch") -- external if you need "bridged" type functionality
4) boot using the virtual disk copied. Note if you've more than one then ensure it's the boot drive.

Literally 5 mins work !! or less.

Note also if you've attached physical disks then ensure these are on the new host (if moving to different computer or target ) and offline them via diskpart so you can attach them as physical drives.

Cheers
jimbo

I agree that the simplified method described should work for Linux and or similar VM installations that don't require hardware linked activation, but wouldn't activation be lost by Windows installations because of the change in identity (Machine UUIID) of the VM?

LeLibran said:

I agree that the simplified method described should work for Linux and or similar VM installations that don't require hardware linked activation, but wouldn't activation be lost by Windows installations because of the change in identity (Machine UUIID) of the VM?

Click to expand...

Even this approach somewhat overcomplicates things on same device.

If you have an existing activated VM, all you need to do is change the hard drive to new VHDX.

If it is on another pc, you can copy the activated vm configuration files to new pc and create a vm keeping existing UUID, then attach vhdx files.

jimbo45 said:

100% SIMPLE WAY.

1) Copy the virtual disk file(s) to target -- other machine / other disk(s) etc.
2) create a NEW Hyper-V VM and specify use existing virtual disk(s). Ensure of course same generation as the original VM.
3) Create new NIC ("Virtual switch") -- external if you need "bridged" type functionality
4) boot using the virtual disk copied. Note if you've more than one then ensure it's the boot drive.

Literally 5 mins work !! or less.

Click to expand...

Yep, it's mostly what I do here as well, all testing stuff and non-activated ones.

In case of Windows activation, just 'export' the VM without the VHDX drive. That way the machine UUID is kept in the exported package.