how to, win7 hdd in linux vm?

[caddi daddi]

I have an HDD from A machine that has win7 on it, the rig just died and I need to run A few programs on the win7.
I can run windows in A vm from A dvd.
How do I run from A hdd, in an external dock using virtual box under linux?

 

[David]

I've never tried this, but it looks like you can point a VirtualBox VM at a physical disk: https://www.serverwatch.com/guides/using-a-physical-hard-drive-with-a-virtualbox-vm/

It looks like VMWare will also do this: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2046678

I suspect the OS will not like the shock of being run on different 'hardware' so it might be best to boot into safe mode first in Virtualbox, delete everything from device manager, and then start the OS 'normally' in Virtualbox.

Hope this helps ...

 

[ihrsetrdr]

Download VMware Workstation 16.1.0 Player and create a vm, using your Win 7 install disc.

The vm image file is portable, use on other machines or archived.