System and method for converting a physical disk to a virtual disk

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that are executed in a computer system to cause the computer system to carry out a method for converting a physical disk into a virtual disk file for use by a virtual machine, said method comprising:

• receiving user inputs specifying a file name and a path for the virtual disk file;
• shutting down applications that place locks on files stored in the physical disk prior to copying contents of the physical disk, and then copying the contents of the physical disk including files of an operating system and network parameters into the virtual disk file;
• modifying the network parameters that have been copied into the virtual disk file;
• and
• booting the virtual machine from the virtual disk file.

A computer system for converting a physical disk into a virtual disk file for use by a virtual machine, comprising:

• a storage device;
• and
• a processor programmed to:
• store user inputs specifying a file name and a path for the virtual disk file,
• shut down applications that place locks on files stored in the storage device prior to copying contents of the storage device, and then copy the contents of the storage device including files of an operating system and network parameters into the virtual disk file,
• modify the network parameters that have been copied into the virtual disk file, and
• boot the virtual machine from the virtual disk file.