How to Migrate Existing Windows Installations to VirtualBox

Why Migrate Existing Windows Installations?

Migrating existing Windows installations to another place is helpful to the application of computer in a certain way. For example, most of computer users are using Windows 7 or Windows 8 OS. However, we have to move our old Windows 7 or Windows 8 system to the new PC instead of building a new system in some situations, or we may restore MBR system image to GPT based on UEFI motherboard. Whatever, we need to move existing Windows installations first.

VirtualBox can give convenience to us. Moving existing Windows installations to VirtualBox can solve many problems that physical system cannot solve. As we all know that Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft since April, 2014. However, there are some mission-critical systems that need to run Windows XP. What should we do? Migrating existing Windows installation to VirtualBox can solve those kinds of problem.

Migrate Existing Windows Installations to VirtualBox with AOMEI Backupper

Migrating existing Windows installations to VirtualBox is not as simple as restoring with Windows built-in tool. The physical computer and the VM have different configurations so that you can’t move the existing installations to VirtualBox by using Windows snap-in tool. Thus, you need to find help from third-party software.

Compared with other software, AOMEI Backupper Professional is worth trying for PC users. If you are working with Windows Server, you can try Server Edition. On the one hand, this software has abundant features and it can solve the problem in a simple way; on the other hand, you don’t have to worry about the security of the database, because it can run without data loss.

★ Make sure that you have done these before:

• Please create an image for the existing Windows installations and make sure that you know where it has been stored.

• Use the "Create Bootable Media" in the "Tools" of AOMEI Backupper to create a bootable media to start the VirtualBox.

Now follow the steps below to move Windows installation to VirtualBox:

Step 1. Use the bootable media you have created before to start the VirtualBox. The interface of AOMEI Backupper will come in sight. Click "Restore" and "Select Image File" to browse the path where you put the backup image before.

Step 2. Find the image that you have stored before. In this example, it has been put into the "Share/NAS". Click it and input the IP information to find it (If you put the image on a removable disk, it can be found also. Just click "This PC" to choose the image).

Step 3. Select "Restore this system image" and "Restore to other location", then click "Next".

Step 4. Select a destination where you want to migrate the existing Windows installations and click "Next" to go on.

Step 5. At the Operation Summary page, check the "Universal Restore" option to ensure secure boot and click "Start Restore" to execute the operation. It will be processed automatically. Wait for a minute and when it reaches 100%, click "Finish".