using existing xp installation to format a virtual disk

[dannykayeuk]

sorry, I know I have seen this before because I managed to do it, however I can no longer find it or remember what I did.

I start VB in ubuntu 9.10 and set up a new machine, I want a clean xp install from my existing xp partition how do I get it?

my second problem is that I am running firefox and cannot see sticky posts

danny

[TerryE]

I want a clean xp install from my existing xp partition how do I get it?

What exactly do you mean? "clean install" and "existing machine" is an oxymoron.

You do a clean install from your OS media + SPs onto a blank VD; you then reinstall the N applications that you use if you can find the activation keys; you then attach the old VD as IDE:0:1 and reboot and use computer->manage to sort out drive letter assignments and if nec reboot again then copy across any data that you want from the old VD.

Cleaning up an existing machine is a different issue. Which are you trying to do?

[dannykayeuk]

I don't have install media I an at a university and we never get media. About 6 months ago I found a way of installing to a new virtual disk using the existing installed xp on my first partition. I would like to do that again but don't know how...

[TerryE]

OK, what you want to do is to move the existing XP onto a new HDD. The easiest way is to

• clear out all the crap in the XP distro such as all the temp directories, the $NtUninstallKB*$ packs in /windows, etc.;
• turn off hibernation and make the pagefile minimum;
• reboot and defrag a couple of times;
• run the MS SysInternals sDelete utility
• shutdown add the new blank disk and a liveC ISO
• boot off the liveCD and dd the old disk to the new one (make sure that you go in the right direction!!)
• Fire up Gparted and grow the partition as required
• Remove the old disk and ISO and reboot off the new image in safe mode. Set the pagefile to the correct size, mark the partitions for chkdsk and reboot again.

This has been discussed many times. Students are supposed to be capable of basic research