Disk2vhd v1.0 now available

The SysInternals team just announced the availability of a new tool: Disk2vhd.

This is a tool that you run on a running Windows computer to create virtual hard disks copies of the physical disks that are attached.  Under the covers this tool works by taking a Windows Volume Snapshot (VSS) image of the physical hard disk – and then pouring that into a virtual hard disk. 

There are a number of cool uses for this – with a “poor mans P2V” leading the charge.  One thing that you should be aware of is that this tool does not change the drivers / HAL that is used in a system drive – so you may need to take manual steps to make the VHD actually boot in a virtual machine.

Another potential use is to allow you to move a physical installation of Windows 7 to a “boot from VHD” configuration.

You can download this tool here:

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

It is supported on Windows XP SP2 / Windows Server 2003 and higher.

To do the P2V part also

Check out http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2009/04/testing-virtual-machines-on-hyper-v.html

and also that  vizioncore's vConverter went free recently

http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2009/10/07/disk2vhd-v1-0-now-available.aspx