How to convert a real piece of hardware to a VirtualBox image?

Question

virtual box

the essence of the issue is to remove the old software (2002) from the old piece of iron, which is already on the verge and transfer to a virtual server. the software is paid and tied to the hardware with a generated key upon purchase. The manufacturer no longer exists. there is no way to refactor or break.
I would like to create a dump clone from a real machine and run it on a new server.
thanks for the ideas.

Answer 1

Try to copy the hard disk image to a new physical disk first, it is better to make a sector-by-sector copy, for example, via dd_rescue. Run this copy on the old physical machine. If it starts, then the binding is not to the hard drive.
Virtualbox can emulate some info from BIOS www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#changedmi
dump your system and try.
Another option is the poppy address of the network card, the simplest case. Make an image, change the address.
In any case, it is still unknown what is faster to do experiments with images, or still reverse. Reversing will at least show where to dig.
By the way, the binding may not be iron, but software, to some kind of system identifier, such as the installation date.

Answer 2

Well, especially if you don’t know which piece of hardware you are binding to, if we say to the serial number of the disk or the poppy of the network network, then you can probably fix them in the virtual machine, and if something is more interesting, it’s already more difficult.