One of my computers is dying so I’m replacing it with another. I have a bunch of VirtualBox machines, some with Windows on them. When I cloned them and moved them to the new machine, I get a popup in Windows that the hardware has changed and I need to activate Windows again. Is there any way to keep it from seeing different hardware so i don’t have to go through this for every install?
When you clone a machine, you’ve changed the virtualized hardware, eg new mac address. Cloning creates a new machine which can co-exist with the original (source) machine without conflicts. When you <migrate> a machine, you’re not creating a new machine which can co-exist with the original but simply moving the machine to a new location. If you tried to launch two copies of the same machine (without cloning) at the same time you’d have conflicts.
The proper way is to migrate the image, ie since AFAIK Virtualbox doesn’t support any special runtime migration, you should simply shutdown the VM, copy the virtual disks (and if possible the VM config file) to the new machine and re-launch. If the running machine sees exactly the same environment on bootup it saw when it last shut down, eg same memory, same virtualized cpu, same virtualized nics, etc. then you shouldn’t need to re-activate.
IIRC, Windows looks at something like 5 or 6 different hardware, and if a significant number of them change (eg more than one), then it assumes re-activation is required.
HtH,
TSU
On 2013-05-22 19:26, 6tr6tr wrote:
>
> One of my computers is dying so I’m replacing it with another. I have a
> bunch of VirtualBox machines, some with Windows on them. When I cloned
> them and moved them to the new machine, I get a popup in Windows that
> the hardware has changed and I need to activate Windows again. Is there
> any way to keep it from seeing different hardware so i don’t have to go
> through this for every install?
I have used VB very little, but with vmware you just copy the entire
directory holding each virtual machine. The hardware definition is one
of the files, so when copied over the guests think they are on the same
machine. Nothing changed.
Well, not entirely true, the CPU is the same model as the host, it is
not emulated.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
I tried this, it did not work. it still complained even though I just copied the entire folder instead of cloning
On 2013-06-01 16:36, 6tr6tr wrote:
> I tried this, it did not work. it still complained even though I just
> copied the entire folder instead of cloning
The CPU has changed, at least. It is not emulated.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
I don’t know for sure if I’d see anything helpful, but pls post your VM config file, both on the original physical machine and (if re-built) on the new machine… If you have access to either or both.
TSU
On Sat, 01 Jun 2013 14:36:03 +0000, 6tr6tr wrote:
> I tried this, it did not work. it still complained even though I just
> copied the entire folder instead of cloning
What specific error message did you get? I have copied VirtualBox VMs
between systems in the past and generally not had problems with it.
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
On 2013-06-03 20:25, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sat, 01 Jun 2013 14:36:03 +0000, 6tr6tr wrote:
>
>> I tried this, it did not work. it still complained even though I just
>> copied the entire folder instead of cloning
>
> What specific error message did you get? I have copied VirtualBox VMs
> between systems in the past and generally not had problems with it.
The guest has to be Windows 7 at least. If I understood him correctly, Windows says that the
hardware has changed too much and you have to call Microsoft to validate the license again. It is an
anti-pirating measure, so that you don’t clone one machine into another - precisely what he is
doing. They do not consider that you are replacing a machine with another.
I got that error on my laptop when the hardisk broke down and I had to replace it with a new one. I
had to clone the numerical ID of the harddisk to make it trust me again 
The only hardware that changes when you clone a virtual machine is things like the CPU, which does
indeed change, it is not emulated. Things that are passed from the host to the guest.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from oS 12.3 “Dartmouth” GM (rescate 1))
I tried doing the “clone the numerical ID of the harddisk” steps as well, but this still did not work. 
Maybe because other things changed too? Is there no way around this?
On 2013-06-04 20:06, 6tr6tr wrote:
> I tried doing the “clone the numerical ID of the harddisk” steps as
> well, but this still did not work. Maybe because other things changed
> too? Is there no way around this?
The CPU changes for sure. Maybe that is enough, because changes are
accumulative for Windows. The moment you do 3, or 5, I think that is the
number, PAF!
I do not know what else changes and what does Windows verify.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
On 2013-06-04 23:48, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> I do not know what else changes and what does Windows verify.
This is a question that a vbox specific forum would be better prepared
to answer, IMHO.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)