Hi, I would like to convert my Ubuntu 20.04 virtual machine to a dual boot option alongside Windows 10 on my newish Dell laptop (with EFI) but am not sure about the best way to go about doing this.

If possible I would like to keep everything in the VM as it is including all files and applications.

This guide (https://www.tecmint.com/install-ubun...ows-dual-boot/) explains how to use a utility such as Rufus to do a fresh install on a machine already running Windows.

Would it be best to follow this guide and then reconstruct my setup from a backup of my VM? (If so, should I *not* backup my system as a disk image?) I have a USB drive from an old Windows machine that I could partition and reformat for the backup (it's got 90 GB of free space and I could free up more). I also have a flash drive I could use for the fresh install of Ubuntu.

Or is there a better way?

My Ubuntu Virtual Box:
Storage: 128 GB (52 GB filesystem partition with 17 GB free and 75 GB of unallocated space)
OS specs: 64-bit, X11 windowing system, Gnome 3.36, Ubuntu 20.04

My Windows host system:
Storage: 475 GB Bitlocker-encrypted basic data partition (with 265 GB free),
EFI partition (150 MB), recovery partition (990 MB)
OS specs: 64-bit, Windows 10 Pro

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Not sure what the best way is but maybe I'd take a partition copy of the vm using gparted.

I'd create an install of fresh ubuntu on the physical system. Then I'd copy off the partition/partitions.

There are some slight issues however. If your vm isn't a uefi then you have to fix all of that.

Could be some loader/grub issues too. Some predictive naming.

Other way might be to copy off data. Get list of programs then new install and install programs and copy data.

I'm sure there is a V2P program too. Not the typical way

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I agree with Jefro, I have had some success using his suggested method.

As I am not terribly skilled with computers, here's how I would approach it:

Create a fresh Ubuntu install alongside windows. This would be the simplest method to get a dual boot up and running.

Create a backup of your VM with a program called Timeshift.

Restore backup into your fresh Ubuntu install and you should be good to go.

There are a lot of how to's on Timeshift if you've never used it before.

Let us know how you make out.

1 members found this post helpful.

but why don't you create two VMs (one for Windows and another one for Ubuntu). You can share data between them (if you wish)

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks very much, Jefro, DNioce and pan64.

In case it helps others in a similar situation, here's what eventually worked for me. Following Jefro's advice, rather than copy the whole machine I just saved the data I needed on a flash drive and transferred it after the install. It wasn't too time-consuming to reinstall all my apps manually.

Can't overpraise the tecmint guide -- it's very thorough and clear. It made the process of partitioning the hard drive and creating an installation drive straightforward and relatively easy to do. I didn't change any of the default settings in Rufus, and it worked perfectly.

I did run into an issue because my Dell's storage controller used RAID by default. My first attempt at installing Ubuntu failed because of this. Then, when I first tried to change from RAID to AHCI, Windows wouldn't boot. What worked was using the terminal to turn on safe mode, go into BIOS in safe mode and change from RAID to AHCI. Windows then automatically downloaded the necessary AHCI controller, and all went well after that.

Thanks for the suggestion, pan 64. I wanted to stop using the VM because the performance wasn't great, despite giving it lots of storage/processors/RAM etc. Also, I wasn't able to use some hardware effectively or at all, including the integrated webcam.

With Ubuntu as a dual boot option I'm not experiencing any of those issues (so far).