Vmware launches beta of real to virtual converter

Vmware has launched a tool (windows only it seems) aimed to convert a REAL running system into a virtual machine. (For use with VMWare's virtualization products. The converter also can convert images from competing virtual machine "platforms"(?) (Microsoft Virtual PC, Microsoft Virtual Server, Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (formerly LiveState Recovery) and Norton Ghost9 (or higher) to VMware virtual machine disk format.)

Which gets me to a realization I had about a system that backs up to DVD images using mondoarchive - it should be possible to use those images to build a vmware virtual machine that should look and act like the original. Yes, I know, "duh".... The only real limitation is likely disk space and with rapidly increasing hard drive sizes (and system boards with multiple disk i/o options like IDE AND SATA....) the possibilities become interesting flexibility and options when it comes to giving small businesses a means of migration (or an emergency backup in the instance of severe hardware failure.)

Of course with Windows systems there is the challange of hardware detection, linux systems typically don't have the same "trauma" that windows does when the drive is "transplanted" to a new system. I continue to discover new ways to use virtualization (like vmware server.) (Both in house for testing) and for my tech support services.