Converting a physical Windows 98 machine to a Virtual machine

Question

I need to convert a physical Windows 98 laptop to a virtual machine. I need to do this because I need to migrate an old application which still is used, and cannot run natively on Windows 7.

Any ideas on how to proceed with the conversion please?

I am not bound to any specific hypervisor- as long as it works I give it a go. Thank you — redknight, May 13 '11 at 16:32

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 11 '11 at 07:19

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You could try VMware Converter ( http://www.vmware.com/products/converter ). There is should be an iso file available which makes a offline p2v.

answered May 11 '11 at 07:19

patricks

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered May 11 '11 at 07:40

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I'd use any of the regular imaging tools, such as Clonezilla, Ghost, etc, to take an image of the Win 98 machine, create an empty virtual machine and restore the image to that. While there are specialised P2V tools for a simple one-off like this it's not worth the bother of tracking one down. This cloning method has the advantage that it doesn't restrict you to any particular VM host system.

answered May 11 '11 at 07:40

John Gardeniers

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can you mention some specialised p2v tools? can you please guide me how to restore the image > – redknight May 11 '11 at 09:24
@rednight, I haven't used any of them for at least 8 years, so can't tell you around these days, other than the one oldskool mentioned in his/her answer. Try Googling for `p2v`. – John Gardeniers May 11 '11 at 11:29

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 13 '14 at 17:47

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I know it's an old question, but adding some knowledge for people who come across it later, like me

I am looking to do the same, and found a microsoft tool which does the p2v to a VHD file, which I believe is natively recognized by VirtualBox and can be made to work with vmware too.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ee656415

answered Dec 13 '14 at 17:47

aberson

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Note that this tool does not support Windows 98, only XP and higher. – Noor Khaldi Oct 01 '15 at 07:12
It's been a while, but I know that I did p2v a windows 98 box, and I **think** I used this tool to do it (even if not officially supported). This was likely done by mounting the 98 OS drive on an XP/7 machine. – aberson Oct 01 '15 at 14:29

Converting a physical Windows 98 machine to a Virtual machine

3 Answers3