Installing Ubuntu & VirtualBox to use existing XP instal

[ChrisNY]

Hi;

I have a computer with 3 partitions on the hard drive, with XP currently booting on drive E:, and the other partitions used for data. I would like to install Ubuntu on one of the other partitions and dual boot, which is straightforward enough, but then I want to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu and use it to run the existing installed XP system on top of Linux using VirtualBox, keeping XP's current partition, set-up etc.

I don't want to reinstall XP; I've spent too much time getting it set up as it is. Are there any special concerns or issues with this I should be aware of (like, is it impossible or very difficult)?

I've never run VirutalBox or other VM; or Linux either for that matter, but I grew up as a sysadmin on AT&T System V Unix, so I'm not *nix illiterate, just rusty and not familiar with Linux specifics. I'd like to get back into a Unix-like environment, but many of the tools I use run only on Windows, so I need access to that environment as well.

Thanks for any help or advice.

[Perryg]

Hi;

I have a computer with 3 partitions on the hard drive, with XP currently booting on drive E:, and the other partitions used for data. I would like to install Ubuntu on one of the other partitions and dual boot, which is straightforward enough, but then I want to install VirtualBox on Ubuntu and use it to run the existing installed XP system on top of Linux using VirtualBox, keeping XP's current partition, set-up etc.

I don't want to reinstall XP; I've spent too much time getting it set up as it is. Are there any special concerns or issues with this I should be aware of (like, is it impossible or very difficult)?

I've never run VirutalBox or other VM; or Linux either for that matter, but I grew up as a sysadmin on AT&T System V Unix, so I'm not *nix illiterate, just rusty and not familiar with Linux specifics. I'd like to get back into a Unix-like environment, but many of the tools I use run only on Windows, so I need access to that environment as well.

Thanks for any help or advice.

Have a look at this.
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=1966
Not for the faint of heart I must tell.
Be sure to read it all and be very careful.

[polac]

Have a look to this link http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... windows+xp
I have the same problem in my pc, i have looking for a solution and it seems to be no possible by now.