Slight OT: How to run existing FreeBSD on windows as a VM

[David Christensen]

On 2021-02-17 00:21, Aryeh Friedman wrote:
> I have two SSD's one that has FreeBSD installed on it and one that has
> WIndows 10 on it.
> 
> I want to run the windows SSD as a VM on FreeBSD and the FreeBSD on windows
> as a VM.   How can I do this without having to reinstall either one.  I am
> pretty sure how to do the first case since I have played with bhyve quiet
> extensively including doing by hand windows VM's on it and am pretty sure
> all I have to do is point bhyve to the right /dev node (I have done this
> before with raw disks for FreeBSD but not windows).
> 
> I am completely unfamiliar with how to do VM's on windows though and except
> for knowing there are hypervisors for it am completely clueless about how
> to do that end.


If you want to convert the FreeBSD disk to a VirtualBox image file -- 
e.g. two FreeBSD machines that diverge when operated -- I would try the 
VBoxManage 'convertfromraw' command:

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserManual.html#vboxmanage-convertfromraw


If you want to run the FreeBSD drive inside VirtualBox on Windows -- 
e.g. one machine that can be operated in one of two ways but retain its 
identity -- I would try "raw hard disk access":

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserManual.html#rawdisk


In either case, you may need to adjust rc.conf(5) to deal with network 
drivers and/or settings.


David