I am faced with a Windows hardware/software problem left over from another person. It's on me to resolve. It's a mission critical setup. The situation is:

I've got a physical server machine with:

-Disk C:\ (one disk) containing a basic install of Windows Server 2008 R2, formerly Win Vista Pro, now gone.

-Disk D:\ (software Raid) containing a VirtualBox disk image of a configured Windows Server 2008 R2 running SQL Server R2 among others.

What shall I do now?

• Migrate all the stuff from the configured VM to the basic but
  natively installed C:\ Windows Server 2008 R2 (with the possibility
  of breaking stuff)? Or,

• Setting up the machine to "natively boot" the VM with the help of bcdedit.exe (something I've read about, what I've never done, what I don't know of if it works, if it hits performance, or if it is stable for production)

For me, being old skool, I am in the process of de-virtualising everything (option 1). But I'd be happy if someone suggests I am ok to go down the "natively boot" route.