[SOLVED] Problem moving existing XP to VBox

[RoboDave]

I've been trying to start up my existing Windows XP installation (sata) on an Ubuntu 8.04 host machine (separate sata). I think I've managed to set up the drives ok.

Found bug 2182 so I changed to IDE and no longer get error.

But it still won't start. There is no error and Vbox is still responsive, it will capture the mouse and keyboard and return it. It just dose nothing, black screen with carat. The session info dialog says it has read a couple of kb from the disk so it can see it but has not written anything back. Don't know if that's significant.

Using VBox 2.0.2 but have tried on 1.6.6 with same result.
I can still start the Windows installation by itself.

Dose anyone have any ideas about what is going wrong? Or how I can get more info out of it to diagnose the problem?

[Sasquatch]

This is a common problem of users picking just the first partition of the disk where the OS is installed on they want to run in VB. They all forget that you need a proper MBR before you can boot an OS. There are ways to get this without any problem. If you search on the forums (use the trick in the Forum Posting Guide). You might also find some info about this in the Tutorial: All about VDIs.

[RoboDave]

Found the problem is coz I'm a noob with linux. I created the virtual disk using /dev/sdb1 not /dev/sdb. That'll teach me for just following other peoples tutorials parrot fashion.