Virtualbox beginner need help about disk image...

[Flamur]

I will speak short:
I am very familiar using computers but new to virtual machines.
My old PC broke, it was running WinXP.
The HDD(80GB) was working so I kept it, later I added it to my new PC (WinXP too).

I want to use my old OS and programs using Virtualbox.
I as far as I looked surfing the web, I heard you can create a file that will 'represent' the HDD and alow it to be use by the virtual machine.
I couldn't find or\and understand any guide or way to do so...

Please Help me or at least guide me, is it possible, somewhat possible or totally impossible
If you need more info ask me I will reply ASAP.

[MarkCranness]

See section 9.10 of the VirtualBox user manual (if you have downloaded it), or here online:
http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserMa ... ml#rawdisk

You will also have to P2V migrate your old XP installation to boot on VirtualBox (http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows), which is currently not easy to do.

[Sasquatch]

There is a howto written for P2V and dual boot (physical and virtual for the same system) in the Windows Guests forum. It's written with Linux as Host, but if you change the commands to fit for Windows Hosts, it will work just fine too. Only the first part is Host specific, then it goes to the Guest.

[mpack]

I heard you can create a file that will 'represent' the HDD and alow it to be use by the virtual machine.

That could mean a couple of things. It could mean using raw disk access as has already been mentioned, or it could mean converting the raw disk into a virtual one. I would recommend the latter, as it would give you an independant disk for the exclusive use of the virtual machine. It would involve creating a backup of the existing disk using a tool such as Acronis TrueImage, and then "restoring" this image to a virtual disk, inside a VM.

As mentioned, this would be the start of a P2V project. Is the old HDD still the primary boot disk of the new PC? If so, that would make certain things easier, such as applying the MergeIDE fix.