I would like to create an virtual image from a backup. I have used Ghost 14.0 to create a backup of my C: drive in FAT32 on an external drive in 2GB increments on a WinXP SP2 environment. I would like to convert this backup to a VHD file(s) so that I can run as a virtual machine on a Windows Vista 64 bit host. I am assuming that I would first use the Ghost convert feature for generating the VHD file. Also, I believe I will need to use Sysprep tool to handle driver issues. However, being new to this I don't know how to progress. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.
Thanks. I performed the conversion on the first of the backup files for my C: Drive, C_Drive.v2i, even though the Ghost backup process created a total of 16 files (C_Drive.v2i and C_Drive_s01.v2i, C_Drive_s02.v2i, ..., C_Drive_s15.v2i) each of size 2GB along with COMPUTER.sv2i (note that COMPUTER is my computer name). This conversion resulted in a virtual image C_Drive.vhd of size 55 GB (approximately the size of C: drive source contents). Since the Ghost conversion will only convert one file I decided to choose the first backup file that was created but was unsure if I made the correct choice.
Since I am trying to run this WinXP virtual image on a different computer running Win Vista Home Ultimate (64-bit), I expect to have driver incompatibilities which I assume that Sysprep tool will resolve those differences. The only issue is that there are a number of articles about using Sysprep which are complicated. Is there a simple source that I can reference for running the virtual image.
Sysprep cannot be used with the .v2i version of Ghost (10, 12, 14). Since you're needing to restore with different hardware, Backup Exec System Recovery (BESR) is actually the solution you'll want. It includes a feature called Restore Anywhere that will allow you to handle the driver inconsistencies. For more info on BESR you can check the Enterprise forums at https://forums.symantec.com.
Not sure I actually answered your question. Try specifying the VHD or VMDK file as the drive for the virtual machine. See if you encounter an error. Some virtual machines will wrap a VM around the file if you double click the file.
As I mentioned earlier, sysprep won't work for your purposes.
I would like to create an virtual image from a backup. I have used Ghost 14.0 to create a backup of my C: drive in FAT32 on an external drive in 2GB increments on a WinXP SP2 environment. I would like to convert this backup to a VHD file(s) so that I can run as a virtual machine on a Windows Vista 64 bit host. I am assuming that I would first use the Ghost convert feature for generating the VHD file. Also, I believe I will need to use Sysprep tool to handle driver issues. However, being new to this I don't know how to progress. I would appreciate any help. Thanks.