Windows 10: I want to virtualize the hard drive from windows 7 laptop which died

hey everyone.

I think I'm getting ready to embark on my first virtualization. I had a laptop running windows 7 (upgraded from windows vista) and it died.

So I put the hard drive in an enclosure and connected it to my new laptop running windows 10.

I've heard that if i were to virtualize the windows 7 hard drive using windows 10, then I can run the windows 7 hard and its application as if running windows 7 itself.

Is that right?

Anyway my other question was that let's say i do virtualize the windows 7 hard drive and save it to my windows 10 hard drive. What happens to the windows 7 hard drive itself?

Can I move the virtualized windows 7 hard drive content back to the windows 7 hard drive once it's been virtualized?

I think there has to be a way to do that otherwise, I have two copies of the windows 7 hard drive contents.

I need some help in understanding this. Thanks for any tips.

:)

 

Hard drive/ OS issue

a guy suggested :

• shutdown
• unhooked HDD
• restarted
• yay !!
• reconnected HDD
• restarted
• yay !!

also , try method 3
How do I unlock the drive where Windows 10 is installed?

 

Windows 7 machine died, so I put the hard drive in an enclosure, but it won't let me access the home folder

My windows 7 laptop died today, so I decided to put the hard drive into an enclosure and connected it to a windows 10 laptop.

What I was hoping to do to is to use the windows 7 hard drive and its OS as a standalone OS on top of the windows 10.

I recall being able to do this with windows xp and windows vista, when my windows xp laptop died and the hard drive in an enclosure was connected to windows vista laptop.

is this possible with windows 7 hard drive in enclosure connected to windows 10 laptop?

Can I run the application on the windows 7 hard drive as if it's running the windows 7 off the hard drive in the enclosure connected to the windows 10 laptop?

Thanks in advance for any info.

I don't know where to put this question, so I'm choosing windows 10, windows update, recovery and backup section.

 

Unable to create virtual hard drive

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



As you are trying to create a virtual machine, you can try creating a virtual hard disk manually by using PowerShell command and check if that helps.



Please follow the steps mentioned below to create virtual hard disk.

• Type PowerShell in the Windows start menu.
  
• Right click on PowerShell and select run as administrator.
  
• Please enter this command New-VHD "C:\Hyper-V\Virtual Machines\Drive1.vhdx" –size 60GB –dynamic
  and hit enter key. (Note: you can change the size of the virtual hard drive according to your requirement)
  
• Open Disk Management.
  
• Click on Action and select
  Attach VHD.​
  
• Click on Browser and navigate to the location
  C:\Hyper-V\Virtual Machines and select drive1 and click on
  Open.​
  
• Click on OK.​
  
• Now, right click on Disk 1 and select
  Initialize Disk.​
  
• Select the Type of partition you want to use and click on
  OK.​
  
• Now, right click on unallocated space and click on
  New Simple Volume.​
  
• Follow the on-screen instructions to assign a
  drive letter.
  

If the issue persists, I suggest you to post your query in TechNet
forums, where we have support professionals who are well equipped with the knowledge to create virtual machines.



Hope it helps.

Noor Azam S

Microsoft Community - Moderator