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Using Windows XP from a Hard Disk Image

Posted: 27. Dec 2009, 20:42
by Gouldy
I'm about to get a Macbook but feel it would be useful to have a copy of windows available should I need it. I plan of creating an image (.iso) of an old hard drive that came with Windows XP pre-installed and use that installation with virtualbox (which I haven't used before). How easy will this be? And will the default drivers from the old computer cause any problems? Would it be better to errr "procure" another copy of windows via the internet?

I also imagine this is a fairly common post, if it is if you could point me in the direction of a thread/guide with some good advice that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Gouldy.

Re: Using Windows XP from a Hard Disk Image

Posted: 27. Dec 2009, 21:03
by mpack
Sigh... I wish people would learn what the term "ISO" means. This is the second time in as many minutes that I've written this: but there's no such thing as an ISO image of a hard disk. An ISO image is a CD/DVD image, and "ISO" is the international standards body which defined the filesystem used on CDs. They didn't define the filesystem used on hard disks.

As to your question, search for P2V and/or migration, site: forums.virtualbox.org.

Re: Using Windows XP from a Hard Disk Image

Posted: 28. Dec 2009, 05:12
by Gouldy
I'm not really sure what I'm doing (as you can probably tell) and presumed the disk image would be an .iso, good thing I put that in the post - thanks for correcting me and pointing me in the right direction.