Virtualize an old computer and run it on your EliteDesk

I finally replaced our 15 year old HP desktop with an EliteDesk 800 G5 Mini but I still needed a way to access the old files and programs. Solution: virtualize the machine and use Hyper V in Windows 11 to run it.
Info on re-activating a machine after virtualization: support.micros...
Disk2VHD software: learn.microsof...

[@jb31842]

A general word of warning about hardware RAID: If the motherboard or add-in RAID controller board has a problem, you will likely lose all your data, unless you can source an identical motherboard or controller to replace with.
The conventional wisdom in the Linux community is that you always want to use software RAID, because you can set up another Linux machine with enough SATA ports available and gain access to the data on the drives.
I don't know quite what that would look like in a Windows environment, though...

[@handmedowntech]

Good point. Linux always seems easier and more portable from machine to machine. Our old machine did well with the hardware RAID and we'll see how the G5 does with the pseudo RAID. Thankfully all critical files are on our NAS

[@darthbubba866]

How 'bout a comparison of Hyper V to Virtualbox and Vmware using the same Win10 machine image.

[@handmedowntech]

I like it. Good follow up video. Especially since virtualbox is run right out of Windows

[@JosianoNunes84]

What you could do to save space on the VM is not to include the HP RECOVERY partition, because it will be useless, since the system will no longer be installed on the physical HP machine.

[@handmedowntech]

Good point. I'm sure Dell and the others have similar type recovery partitions.

[@JosianoNunes84]

@@handmedowntech Yes, they all do, and none of these partitions will be useful in a virtual machine.