Ghost/Aconis image to VHD
in [Virtual PC]
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From: Steve Jain [MVP] on 26 Feb 2010 18:04 On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:39:31 +0100, d d <go_on_try_and_sp(a)m_me.com> wrote: >Steve Jain [MVP] wrote: >> On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:07:14 -0600, "News" <nf(a)no.com> wrote: >> >>> Is there a tool to convert ghost or acronis image files to VHDs? >>> >>> thanks >>> Craig >>> >> >> VMWare has a converter program, but I've heard mixed reviews of its >> success rates: http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ >> >> You can just boot a new VM and then run the imaging program and dump >> the image into the VM. >> > >What about the issue of the installation being tied to the processor >number and the combination of devices ? Using a VM won't change those things. > >I regularly backup my computers of course, mostly as protection against >a hard drive death or a massive virus infection. I've always assumed >there's not much point though from the point of view of it being useful >in the case where a machine completely dies and needs replacing. Am I >wrong? Can that backup be restored to a new machine ? No, VMs are no different than imaging to a different image. The OP doesn't say what the disk image is of, AFAIK, it could be another VM. The original question was if you can go from a ghost/acronis image to a VHD, which you can. There are limitations, just like imaging to a different machine. Acronis Universal should help with that though. -- Cheers, Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP http://vpc.essjae.com/ http://smudj.wordpress.com/
From: d d on 26 Feb 2010 18:54
Bo Berglund wrote: > On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:39:31 +0100, d d <go_on_try_and_sp(a)m_me.com> > wrote: > >> Steve Jain [MVP] wrote: >>> On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:07:14 -0600, "News" <nf(a)no.com> wrote: >>> >>>> Is there a tool to convert ghost or acronis image files to VHDs? >>>> >>>> thanks >>>> Craig >>>> >>> VMWare has a converter program, but I've heard mixed reviews of its >>> success rates: http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ >>> >>> You can just boot a new VM and then run the imaging program and dump >>> the image into the VM. >>> >> What about the issue of the installation being tied to the processor >> number and the combination of devices ? >> >> I regularly backup my computers of course, mostly as protection against >> a hard drive death or a massive virus infection. I've always assumed >> there's not much point though from the point of view of it being useful >> in the case where a machine completely dies and needs replacing. Am I >> wrong? Can that backup be restored to a new machine ? > > Well, digressing from the topic of this NG, the whole point of backup > software surely is as a means of rescue from disaster? > So, yes, you can restore to a new machine. There may be problems > encountered due to the different hardware environment in the new PC so > that for instance Windows will have trouble starting up. But then you > can do a rescue install from the OS CD and it will sort things out. > Or, with Acronis you can use their "Universal Restore" feature, which > will handle the hardware differences between the source and target > hardware platform nicely. > > That actually comes in very handy when going to a virtual machine > (P2V) since those invaribly have very different (emulated) hardware. > Well, this may change my backup policy completely. I currently do a twice monthly Acronic Clone-Disk operation to an identical sized drive to the one in my laptop. That's for quick recovery in the situation where my laptop drive dies or gets infected. I've never bothered doing a "proper" backup as I'd always imagined it would be useless as I wouldn't be able to restore it to a new machine. Because of this false belief I seem to have stuck to, I've been using a VM to do a lot of day-to-day work knowing that at the end of the day I can shut down the VM, back up it's vhd file and I can transport that easily to a replacement machine in a dead machine situation. Now that I'm discovering I can simply restore a backup to a new machine, that might change things. I might stop using that VM, run a weekly backup and daily incrementals. Hmmmmm. Now to go read about this universal restore feature... Thanks. Sorry it went OT away from VM's, although VM's were still in there a bit ;-) |