Windows 10: Saving, or exporting a virtual machine?

First of all, I want to be clear that I'm not asking about saving states or snapshots. I'm asking if there's a way to save, or export an actual virtual machine without having to create it from scratch.

It's been a couple of years since I built my current rig and it's time to wipe it, install a couple of new hard drives, and start fresh. I hate to have to create my VMs from scratch though, install the OS and all my apps. Is there a way to save a VM so that I can use it again once I get my system back up and running and get Oracle VM Virtualbox reinstalled?

Thanks.

:)

 

Saving, or exporting a virtual machine?

Hello mate, *Smile

I found this below that may help for exporting and importing a Oracle VM VirtualBox.

1.14. Importing and Exporting Virtual Machines


If this was for Hyper-V virtual machines, you could export (backup) and import (restore) them the way you wanted.

Export Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 10

Import Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 10

 

Saving, or exporting a virtual machine?

First of all, I want to be clear that I'm not asking about saving states or snapshots. I'm asking if there's a way to save, or export an actual virtual machine without having to create it from scratch.

It's been a couple of years since I built my current rig and it's time to wipe it, install a couple of new hard drives, and start fresh. I hate to have to create my VMs from scratch though, install the OS and all my apps. Is there a way to save a VM so that I can use it again once I get my system back up and running and get Oracle VM Virtualbox reinstalled?

Thanks.

 

Saving, or exporting a virtual machine?

Hi there
@Bree

other simple ways -- simply copy the Virtual Machine's data files with file explorer if Windows Host or DD if Linux host (or backup / restore on Linux Hosts with rsync).

Other way - take macrium image (from within the VM) on new machine define HDD large enough but don't install guest OS, then have the iso of macrium stand alone recovery program, boot from it (in the VM) and then restore the OS from the restore media.

I wouldn't waste my time with "Official ways of export / import VM's" unless you've got things like "Linked clones etc". For individual VM's not necessary -. The Macrium method works whether Host is Windows or Linux -- you can also restore a VM created on a Linux host to a Windows one (if using VMWare or VBOX) and the other way around.

Note as well you can image a KVM/QEMU Windows VM with macrium free (again from with the VM) and restore to a VMWare system -- you'll need to adjust the virtual hardware though and possibly use the "Fix windows boot problems" from the stand alone Macrium restore (run again from Within the VM).

All these processes are known as V2V (Virtual to Virtual).

For copying KVM/QEMU Virtual machines to other Linux Hosts - the UUID (identifier is preserved) - for VMWare copies just boot and say I Moved it rather than I copied it at ist boot. I think for HYPER-V and VBOX in the VM's configuration file there's a UUID somewhere which you can set from the old VM --I've seen it somewhere but I can't remember.

Cheers
jimbo