virtualbox.org

I have an Windows XP VirtualBox VM running on a Windows7 host. The C drive on both the host and guest use the NTFS format file system. A friend who has an Intel based MAC needs the software that I've installed on my XP VM. This software will not run properly on Win7 and is not made for Macs at all. Could we simply transfer the VirtualBox files from my Win7 computer and instantly run the VM on the Mac host (assuming, of course, that he's downloaded and installed the VirtualBox software on his Mac)? It's an Intel based Mac and he said we could also install Windows OS'es directly on his machine - that's one of our options if this won't work. But simply transferring the VirtualBox files to his Mac sounds like the easiest way to go because it takes forever to install WinXP and the massive software packages that I've installed on my VM

Thanks for your help!

Alex

The easiest way is to export the XP guest. This creates two or three files that are used to import it to another PC running VirtualBox.
See Chapter 1.11. Importing and exporting virtual machines in your VirtualBox users manual.

Keep in mind that you will more than likely need to validate the XP machine on his/her install as well.
Also make sure that the settings match especially the HDD and IO APIC and if this is on a 64 bit machine and IO APIC was active on the original machine the MAC will need to be able to support 64 bit as we..

IMHO the key is preparation as with any other XP migration (similar to a P2V): i.e. first run mergeide and also disable the processor service. The latter is to bypass problems caused by different host CPUs. Then follow Perry's advice, though personally I would just copy the VDI and create a new VM around it on the OS X host.