virtualbox.org

There are a number of us in Tokyo LUG who have a similar problem and are wondering whether anyone has experience in migrating an existing XP installation on a separate HDD to VirtualBox by installing that HDD in their Linux desktop box and pointing VirtualBox to it.

In my case, I have Kubuntu 8.04 x64 running on an AMD-powered homebuilt box. I want to remove the HDD containing WIN XP (fully patched) from an IBM ThinkCentre (P4 3.06Ghz 32-bit) and install it in my Kubuntu box as I have a number of non-English (Japanese and Chinese) programs for which there is no Linux equivalent (and which crash in WINE) and a number of sites that I use which will not allow a log-in from a non-MS machine.

I already know from previous experimentation that multilingual XP will run in a VirtualBox on Kubuntu, will permit foreign language input via IME, and will fool MS-only websites. So, lets stay away from that issue.

What I / we want to know is whether anyone has successfully migrated an existing installation on HDD to VirtualBox. Could anyone point me to a walk through or a discussion in which someone has advised other newbies? I understand MOST of the issues presented in the FAQ but the author assumed things I am not sure I understand his references to -- like how to create a VDI or VMDK where none exists.

TIA for any references and assistance no matter how small. I will post any answers to TLUG so that others can benefit.

This may or may not help, but look over at an answer to
one of my previous posts:

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... highlight=

HTH,
-T

Hi,

This should get you started: HOWTO: manage VDIs and import native installations (Especially section 4: Import a native installation from a physical disk partition). Of course make sure you've read the relevant section (9.9) in the manual about raw disk acccess. Also for more information about this specifically under Linux you can also have a look at this posting.

Note: If you're planning to still boot the Windows installation natively too then before step 14 in the howto ("repair your copy") you need to create a second hardware profile in Windows to be used when booting via VirtualBox.

If anything is not clear or you have some more specific questions let us know.

Regards,
VT

Todd:

Thank you for the link. It will not help me, I'm afraid, but I have posted it to TLUG in hopes that other members can benefit.

VT:

I think this is what I am looking for. Given my level of Newbiosity there are portions of it that might as well be written in Swahili (some days I feel like the poster child for the point and grunt interface) but, I will read carefully and ask for advice locally from our VB experts before coming back to ask here. There is a fantastic amount of work that has already been done, I see and I hope my efforts do justice to everyone else's investigations.

----------

If there are more basic explanations / walkthroughs out there I would be one happy puppy to learn of them.

TT

The most novice friendly way of doing P2V (physical-to-virtual as such migrations are called) is to use the VMware Converter tool. This will move a physical system into a vmdk for use in VMware -- either VMware Appliance or VMware Server if you want to stay with the free products.

Unfortunately VBox has yet to develop an equivalent product. VMware Appliance is a nice free product but it doesn't have as good mouse and windows integration as VBox. Some people have staged to VBox via VMware Appliance with mixed results. I am not sure that it save an awful lot. There are still an awful lot of steps for the virtualisation novice.

Kubuntu x64 running on an AMD system:

I wanted to once again thank everyone who replied previously. Based upon the responses, I have been doing a bunch of playing around with various install options -- using only a single WIN guest partition -- and am finally ready for the BIG transfer ... I think.

Only one point eludes me:

I want to install a second HDD in my desktop box and create a virtual WIN XP installation using the whole WIN XP HDD from my previous PC. The HDD has a primary partition (root) and an extended partition divided into eight (8) data partitions which I want to install completely. What is the correct strategy for setting up my virtual disk?

1. Do I set up the entire HDD as a virtual disk and then partition it according to the previous setup, or;

2. Do I set up only the primary partition as a virtual disk, or;

3. Do I create a virtual disk for every partition?

I found that I have a brand new HDD of the same size as the one I want to use, so it is merely a matter of starting with a clean disk and transferring. We can skip the backup instructions discussion.

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment ... as the excellent support to date has not seemed to include this point.

--
tokyotea

The 1+8 setup seems a bit bizarre to me. I can't really think why you would do this. But let's assume that you have some rationale for staying with this.

I believe that you will have more flexibility if you stick with VDIs. Split them over separate VDIs by all means, but in this case, you may want to go 3x3 so you have the options of sticking with IDE drives until you get SATA working. If you do go 3x3 allocate VDIs 2x the size you need but interleave the partitions with 100% free space should you need to reorg the partitions.

TerryE wrote:The 1+8 setup seems a bit bizarre to me. I can't really think why you would do this. But let's assume that you have some rationale for staying with this.

I speak / read / write several different languages which use four completely different (unrelated) writing systems. I have, since getting my first PC in 1984, or so, kept the output and language-specific programs for each language separate from the others as the dangers of corrupted output were quite real and weeks of work could easily be destroyed. Before IME there would have been four different languages' versions of the OS and multiple-boot software installed in the mbr. Now there is the multilingual OS in the primary partition and separate partitions for language specific programs and completed files so that a program crash doesn't take out the completed work (still a real danger with Asian languages).

TerryE wrote:I believe that you will have more flexibility if you stick with VDIs. Split them over separate VDIs by all means, but in this case, you may want to go 3x3 so you have the options of sticking with IDE drives until you get SATA working. If you do go 3x3 allocate VDIs 2x the size you need but interleave the partitions with 100% free space should you need to reorg the partitions.

I will give that a try. Thanks for the advice. If, upon reading the reasons above, a different solution occurs to you, please post again.