Copied virtualPC files, what do I have to change in settings?

Question

Hi,

I copied the two files from another VM, the vm machine setting file and the vm hard disk.

1. How can I make it show up in the Virtual PC Console?
2. What changes do I have to make in the settings? i.e. opening it up, it seems it is still referencing the original VM. There are so many GUID's in there also?

Answer 1

I recommend that you do not copy the machine settings (*.vmc), only the harddisk image (*.vhd). Then simply create a new virtual machine with a different name, but instead of creating a new harddisk, attach the existing/copied hardisk file.

BTW: copying virtual harddisks can result in some problems if more than one copy is started at the same time (especially in a company environment, in a windows domain). As far as I know, this is because all copies of the PC will have the same SID (Security ID, which identifies the PC).

If you plan to use the virtual PC in such an environment, I suggest you use SysPrep to create a harddisk image that can be copied without problems. Or at least use the NewSID utility to create a new SID on each copy.

Answer 2

You should be able to create a new virtual machine and then 'choose' the existing vmc file and it will then import it to your Virtual PC machines list.

I'm going off of memory, but this is the basic flow I used with Virtual PC at a previous job.