Convert Physical Machines to Virtual Machines for Free
 

VMWare has released some very cool piece of software that allows you to convert a Physical OS installation to an OS image which can be used on any hardware!

"Use the intuitive wizard-driven interface of VMware Converter to convert your physical machines to virtual machines. VMware Converter quickly converts Microsoft Windows based physical machines and third party image formats to VMware virtual machines. It also converts virtual machines between VMware platforms. Automate and simplify physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats with VMware Converter.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/