Duplicating / Cloning a Drive to 2nd machine

[areicb]

I apologize in advance as I am sure this topic is covered. I was unable to find a clear answer

1:
I have VB on a Windows Machine. I have installed XP as a VM and have all of the settings just how I want them for all of my XP installs. I would like to run 2-3 XP VM's for different purposes. Is there a way to "copy" the hard drive, rename it, and assign it to a new machine? This would make it so I dont have to keep reinstalling and configuring.

2:
Would this situation (if it exists) also serve as a backup?

3:
could this image be moved to a different Host for future/laptop use , or no, due to drivers/hardware differences

Thank you all in advance

[Sasquatch]

1: You can use the VBoxManage clonehd command (formerly known as clonevdi), but it's kinda broken on 2.1.0, making a corrupted clone which won't boot. As an alternative, you can copy it to a different location, then use the VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid on the file.

2: For backups, you can use the normal OS copy method. No need to clone the drive. This is more useful, because if the file is corrupted, you can replace it with your backup and you don't have to unregister the corrupted one and register the backup.

3: You can use either approach for the use on a different Host. Just make sure that you use the same settings, especially the MAC address. If you don't set the same MAC, you might end up with a Windows activation dialog in case it's a Windows Guest, and an additional NIC in a Linux Guest.

[areicb]

answer #1 -- where do I enter "VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid" and how do I use it, can you point me to instructions?

answer #2 -- do you mean normal backup method like Acronis or Ghost?

Sorry if I am being thick here, just a noob at VB

[Jamina1]

answer #1 -- where do I enter "VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid" and how do I use it, can you point me to instructions?

answer #2 -- do you mean normal backup method like Acronis or Ghost?

Sorry if I am being thick here, just a noob at VB

Go to Start -> Run -> Type "cmd" ->type into here!

[areicb]

Problem solved I just copied it and changed the uuid

[Sasquatch]

answer #1 -- where do I enter "VBoxManage internalcommands setvdiuuid" and how do I use it, can you point me to instructions?

answer #2 -- do you mean normal backup method like Acronis or Ghost?

Sorry if I am being thick here, just a noob at VB

About #2, a very basic backup is a copy of the file to a different location. That would be to select the file, right click and select copy, go to a different location on the computer and right click, then select paste. That kind of backup .
Of course, there are other methods, but they all result in the same situation, a copy of the file without any changes.