Convert Virtualbox image to Hyper-V

Question

Is it possible to convert a Virtualbox image to Hyper-V? Preferably without having to startup the virtualbox image.

Answer 1

This has been discussed on our sister site superuser.com before - take a look HERE.

Answer 2

Having problems with the VirtualBox built-in converter (Hyper-V would not open the disks), I had better success with Disk2vhd from Microsoft SysInternals - just run the EXE inside the VM you want to migrate. Detailed instructions at https://hyperv.veeam.com/blog/how-to-convert-physical-machine-hyper-v-virtual-machine-disk2vhd/

• Cons
  • You do need to run the VM in VirtualBox to create the image
  • You get a VSS backup, so after migration the VM didn't get a clean shutdown.
• Pros
  • It's a small utility - no install required
  • It handles multiple spindles
  • You get a .vhdx for each spindle
  • It handles image creation on UNC network path
  • It's blissfully unaware of snapshots - no need to consolidate or clone first.

Once you have the images, attach them to your Hyper-V VM & start it. The first took a minute, while Windows got used to it's new hardware.

Answer 3

That depends a lot on what's in the image.

As a disclaimer, I know nothing about what VirtualBox tends to install in a guest OS image. If any of that stuff crashes when VirtualBox isn't present, there's nothing I know of that will help you.

But if your guest OS is Windows Vista or later, you can do quite a bit of servicing off-line, just by mounting the disk image and manipulating it via the OPK tools. You can install drivers and other components, including the Hyper-V integration components.