How to Virtualise an Existing Windows Install using Proxmox
Ғылым және технология
I have been messing around with Promox for over a year now and thought I would share a helpful tutorial on how to virtualise an old existing Windows install you might want to recover data from.
VirtIO Drivers:
pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Windows_...
CMD to mount SATA drives to VM (-sata can be interchanged with -scsi):
qm set "VM ID" -sata1 /dev/disk/by-id/ata-"MODEL"_"SN"
CMD to mount NVMe drives to VM (-sata can be interchanged with -scsi):
qm set "VM ID" -sata1 /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-"MODEL"_"SN"
Run the virtio-win-gt-x64 installer for 64-bit or -x86 for 32-bit. You can unmount this drive from the hardware tab once you have installed the drivers.
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Пікірлер: 75
Great job!! And to think that the whole time I was trying to copy the operating systems into Proxmox without knowing this simpler solution. Thank you very much!
Gotta say thanks x1000 man, you saved me from having to buy another hard drive, clone it with clone Zilla, uploading the iso to proxmox then trying to run it like that. Now I didn’t even have to buy a hard drive or extra anything. Thanks!
Thakns dude, I've been searching for it for a long time and you explained it almost perfectly. Huge props to You!!
Thanks so much! I am planning to do the exact same thing in the near future with my home-server installation of Windows Server 2022.
Hi, I rarely leave any comments on videos. But, I have to say. Your video rocks! Extremely helpful. I followed it step by step and I got it to work. Amazing! It saved me a lot of time given that I was thinking of creating a backup and go from there. Thank you so much! Please keep up the good work. Subscribed!!!!
@EverythingbySam
8 ай бұрын
Hello! Firstly, thank you, I appreciate the feedback. I do always wonder if I am being clear and informative in all my videos and like to hear when people manage to successfully implement whatever I am trying to teach.
Thank you for this! Short and clear tutorial.
i was thinking you were gonna convert the windows install to a virtual image for proxmox. But this tuto is also good, just not what i was looking for. Nice Job
@EverythingbySam
Жыл бұрын
You could create a backup of the virtual machine then restore it to a different drive if that is what you want to achieve.
@MichaelMantion
3 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam Do you have a video showing how to make a backup and restoring to a different drive? would be useful. Im sure I could figure it out but lots of people would likely do this.
@EverythingbySam
3 ай бұрын
@@MichaelMantion I will consider making it as a couple of people have asked. I have just been really busy lately so it might take a while.
@monoham1
2 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam Please make this or at least leave instructions! following this video and substituting the physical drive for a qcow conversion from a VHDx backup only gets you to the recovery screen and I'm not sure where to go from there! specifically you get "INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE" then you do windows repair and change the devices in that blue and black DOS screen
I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR HOW TO DO THIS FOR MONTHS!!! THANK YOU!!
@EverythingbySam
10 ай бұрын
That was my exact situation about a year ago, it is why I made this tutorial.
Great, refreshing content. Thanks for your time. Subscribed
Thank you!!!! I used this tutorial, and had a couple of things that weren't like in your video: 1. My disk by id script just WOULD NOT WORK. I figured it was the id itself so I used "ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/" to find my disk id (ignoring partition) and the issue was it was "nvme" instead of "ata". 2. The UEFI did not boot, but changing to Default (SeaBIOS) worked I'm actually mid-way through the instructions, but so far my windows machine has booted, so I'm happy :). THANKS!
@EverythingbySam
Ай бұрын
The NVME script is in the description but I probably should have mentioned it sorry.
Massive Thank You!!! I've tried about 5 or 6 different ways to convert a physical Windows 10 to a Proxmox VM over the past week and this was the only way that resulted in a bootable machine that didn't crap out on a sytem repair. Rather than assembling the disk by-id path yourself, you can in the shell use "ls /dev/disk/by-id" find the 'root' entry (ends with the serial number) and cut/past the ID from there. In my case it was nvme-... rather than ata-... which caused some initial confusion.
@EverythingbySam
4 ай бұрын
I do have the NVMe syntax listed in the description although it’s probably not that obvious sorry.
@raysutton2310
4 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam no problem, I got everything working including GPU and USB port passthrough for my 4K HDMI KVM switch, shows up fine in Windows (attached VNC console to check) with the correct vendor/product ID but have been totally unable to get it to work in Windows. Its there showing all the correct HID devices but when I switch to the dedicated KVM channel I have video but no KBD/Mouse. Pondering next steps but may have to give up & use RDP.
Awesome video..this was a great help. I was thinking about copying the entire hard drive and converting it or something crazy..but I knew there was an easier way..thanks.
@EverythingbySam
Ай бұрын
You can also snapshot backup the drive and restore it to one of your other drives if you want to move it off your original drive
That's pretty cool. Nice thing about this setup is you can do a backup. And then restore to a different server's storage so you can remove the SSD.
@EverythingbySam
Жыл бұрын
Yup, it also gives you the flexibility for you to clone the drive to a bigger drive if you run out of space then pass that back through like nothing changed really.
Succinct and on point. Thank you.
thank you for the help!
Great Guide, but small not: If the drive is an nvme drive, it does not start with "ata-", but with "nvme-" which can also be checked easily by going to the shell and cd into /dev/disks/by-id/ Other than that, amazing Guide! You helped me get into Proxmox :)
@EverythingbySam
7 ай бұрын
I have that listed in the description
@Warrorar
7 ай бұрын
. @EverythingbySam damn, i'm so sorry, your video was so straight forward that i was not even in need of the description. I appologize.
@EverythingbySam
7 ай бұрын
@@Warrorar It’s all good mate. As long as your comment has the correct information (which it did of course) there is nothing wrong with restating something as it may help someone in the future.
Welcome back :)
@EverythingbySam
Жыл бұрын
Thanks mate! I appreciate the support.
Glad I came across this! Just sub'd thanks!!
@EverythingbySam
Жыл бұрын
Thanks mate, I appreciate it!
any way to set the EFi partition from the drive to the EFI devices in the VM? maybe this isn't necessary but It is giving a warning
@EverythingbySam
28 күн бұрын
It will throw up a warning upon each boot but it’s not an issue.
Wonderful video, exactly what I wanted, thanks! Just one thing: if I want to import multiple Nvmes or SATA Devices, do I need to -scsi2 or -sata2 for the second ones or is the -sata1 argument are regular term? In my mind it's the denomination that the VM config uses for the device and needs -sata1, -sata2, -sata3 for further devices... am I right?
@EverythingbySam
3 ай бұрын
Yup that’s correct, just increase the number for each additional drive otherwise you will mount the new drive over the top of the exisiting drive if you use the same number.
I have a pc with a single ssd. I want to go from Windows 11 to Proxmox and vm with windows 11. I only have an external hard drive as additional storage. How can I achieve this? Do i need to buy another ssd and install proxmox on that one?
@EverythingbySam
10 ай бұрын
Yes, that is the easiest way.
Once I have added my Win10 the way you describe, is there an easy way to move over the disk on the proxmox disks and remove the original wi dows disk afterwards?
@EverythingbySam
2 ай бұрын
Yep, take a snapshot backup and restore it as a different VM number. Then delete the original VM and remove the physical drive.
@grokit
2 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam elegant... I will try that! Thanks.
Thank you for this concise explanation. One question: why don't you install the VirtIO drivers in the natively booted Windows before virtualising it? Would Windows crash if it had these drivers installed without running in a VM?
@EverythingbySam
10 ай бұрын
That should work doing it that way as well but if you don’t have a spare PC to run up the Windows install this is easier. The scenario I was working from when writing this is you only have the Windows drive.
@BorisZech
10 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam OK, I did it your way. Afterwards I could still boot Windows natively so it should work from the start.
hi noob here, do I need a separate physical drive for each VM?
@EverythingbySam
7 ай бұрын
No, you can partition a small amount of your main Proxmox install drive or a secondary drive to each VM you want to create.
Could this work to transfer a windows key to proxmox?
@EverythingbySam
Жыл бұрын
This method basically wipes out your Windows key as unfortunately detects a new motherboard. You might have luck using your exisiting key to re-activate it but there is no guarantee.
Can be this virtualizeed system moved on virtual disk for fully virtualization? This is good hint but in this case is I`m still depended on physical disk. The main magic of virtualization is in hoping between nodes and independence from "iron".
@EverythingbySam
7 ай бұрын
Take a snapshot backup of the VM and restore it to your main drive then you can delete the exisiting VM and remove the drive.
@poradnanet2005
7 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam I`ve tried it and it`s works.I had to change some details (bios, network card, graphic...etc) but my old system (win7) wa fully virtualized. I`m going to try virtualized Win 2019 server at customer side now.
@EverythingbySam
7 ай бұрын
@@poradnanet2005 congratulations mate, glad it all worked out. I have personally used the snapshot restore multiple times to move old installs from their original drive to a virtual partition.
@poradnanet2005
7 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam Interesting idea use snapshots instead of windows backup.I have FreeNAS as personal NAS at home but I can change it to Proxmox because I`m using Proxmox as primary virtual platform at customers. Thanks for this video..it was new for me.
in your solution snapshot function It's available?
@EverythingbySam
8 ай бұрын
Yes you can take a backup of the virtual machine using the snapshot function and restore it to a different drive if you would like.
Hi, beautiful video! I´m new to proxmox and instead of dual boot all the time. Kan I passthrough my IGPU to this windows install drive in Proxmox? Thanks!
@EverythingbySam
3 ай бұрын
No you cannot passthrough your entire IGPU, only additional graphics cards. The virtual machine will utilise a portion of your IGPU by default for graphics though.
@Thebengtify
3 ай бұрын
Ok, I understand. Hopefully it will be enough during the time it takes me to understand how to set up an LXC container for plex 🙂 Thanks for the reply!
@EverythingbySam
3 ай бұрын
Run an Ubuntu VM with Plex and Jellyfin like I have so you can pass a GPU through later if you want or you could install docker on the Ubuntu VM and run them in containers. Bit more flexible in my opinion.
so, there is no application to run on my installed os like vmware has to make a virtual machine?
@EverythingbySam
10 ай бұрын
You need the Virtio driver for a few things but essentially you are just passing the drive through to a VM which a couple of resources configured. If you wanted to do away with the drive entirely you could take a backup of the VM using Proxmox’s backup tools then restore the VM to your main drive or a different drive.
@generalrodcocker1018
10 ай бұрын
would you recommend someting like disk2vhd?@@EverythingbySam
Great tutorial. Seems so easy. I have a windows 10 pro machine running docker with a dozen containers or so with plex/jellyfin tailscale etc. Was looking for an easy way to convert that bare metal machine to proxmox vm as I don't want to re-setup all my configs. I've got also some external drives which I share through samba. Can that work in the VM?
@EverythingbySam
11 ай бұрын
Yup, just connect them to your bare metal Proxmox system then pass them through to your Windows install VM with the commands I listed. I personally would split the Docker containers away from the Windows install and move it to a Linux OS purely due to the amount of issues that randomly arise with Windows based system such as failed Windows update.
@tmaris
11 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam I haven't found an easy way to migrate my docker containers from my windows machine to a Linux environment. I think it will take me weeks to manually rebuild them and I'm trying to avoid that.
@EverythingbySam
11 ай бұрын
@@tmaris copy Docker data to network share, attach network share to Linux environment, copy data to new location on Linux, recreate Docker containers. You could install Portainer then export and import via the GUI.
@tmaris
11 ай бұрын
@@EverythingbySam Thanks! Will try it out.
@wraithers10
4 ай бұрын
Thanks so much for asking this question, as I'm in very similar position, and to @EverythingbySam for responding. Were you able to get the external (Samba) shares working? How about Plex with hardware encoding/decoding for multiple remote streams? Any notes on how existing opened ports / port forwards are managed? Do I just set them up again in the Proxmox OS and then pass that on to the Windows 10 VM? Related question: I have 5 internal & external HDDs connected via SATA & USB, respectively, that I would want to connect to my W10 VM. Is the process similar to what was shown in the video, and can they be mapped to their existing drive letters to avoid rescanning media for Plex & other apps?
how do i add the other drives with my stuff on them to the new vm?
@EverythingbySam
7 ай бұрын
Exact same command but change the SATA1 portion to SATA2 and so on for each drive
@mariabjrkb.skaftadottir8669
7 ай бұрын
thanks for answer, i think i asked the wrong question, but i figured it out, thanks for answer :D@@EverythingbySam
ERROR (too many arguments) ProTip If your drive has a space between letters, replace with an underscore _ *SO: qm set 105 -sata1 /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-WDC PC SN730 SDBQNTY-XXX-XXX *Should be : qm set 105 -sata1 /dev/disk/by-id/nvme-WDC_PC_SN730_SDBQNTY-XXX-XXX Just thought I'd throw that out there.