I'm wondering if it's possible to create an image of a Windows (7 for example) recovery partition, add it as a Virtual Box VM and start the installation from there just as you'd do in the real PC (in the other partition of the disk).
And a second question, is it legal?
Has someone already done this?
Products like Paragon Hard Disk Manager can make P2V (physical2virtual) migration, letting you create a VM of a partition.