Running in VirtualBox the XP system disk of another PC

[ordipb]

Hello,

I would boot on the Windows XP system disk of another PC in the VirtualBox host.

I use VirtualBox 3.2.10 on Windows 7 Pro 64 bits.

I have a PC to examine which I have to return to his owner, but it remains researches to do (with agreement of his owner).
I took an image of this disk which I restored on another disk.

With VirtualBox, I would create a virtual machine in which the boot disk would be this disk (obtained by restoration of the image).

Is this possible. If it is, how to do ?

Thank you in advance for your informations.

Kindly.

[stefan.becker]

On the real machine you can use a Converter to make a image.

http://www.vmware.com/download/converter/download.html
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 56415.aspx

But you have different hardware on the real machine and in the virtualized guest.

So Windows needs to be reactivated, so you need a second valid xp license.

[ordipb]

Thank you, Stefan, for your answer.

I understand the procedure you suggest :

1. Using Convert or Disk2VHD, I will do a image of the system disk in a compatible format for VirtualBox.
But, will this image be compatible with VirtualBox ?
In the Convert user's guide (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/VMware_Conver ... ual303.pdf), I read this (p. 29) : "The type of destination you are converting to – ESX Server, ESX Server managed by VirtualCenter, a virtual appliance, or a VMware standalone virtual machine.". Nothing about the VirtualBox format. It seems Convert produces images only for VMware product format.
In the presentation page of Disk2VHD (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 56415.aspx) the unique format is for Microsoft Virtual PC.
Do you think that these software can produce an image in a compatible format for VirtualBox ?

2. I will load this image in a VirtualBox virtual machine. But how to do this ?

About Windows activation, you are true. But it's not a problem for me.

The problem is to boot (in Save Mode at the begining) on the windows XP virtualized disk.

I wait for your answer, and I thank you in advance.

[stefan.becker]

VBOX can handle both formats: VMDK(VMWARE) and VHD (MS-VPC).

In VBOX you can create a new guest. In the Guest Config you point to this image instead of creating a new image.

This will mostly work, but does not always work.

[ordipb]

Hello Stefan,

I try to use VMware Converter (Starter version). I installed 3.0.2 version (Previously, I tried to installed the 3.0.3, but the installation failed : error 1920 Service VMware converter service (ufad-p2v) failed to start ; searching in the web, I found that this occurs in 3.0.3 under no English version of Windows 7 ; my one is a French version ; 3.0.2 was installed perfectly).

My problem is : the disk I want to convert, connected on USB, is not prompted (only the internal disks of my physical machine are sawn).
How to do to have the usb disk prompted in the import wizard ?

Kindly.

[stefan.becker]

You can only convert the running system.

[ordipb]

So, if I can convert only the running system, VMware converter is not a solution for me, because I have to take a VMDK image of the disk connected on USB.

I tested Disk2VDI. I could take a vdi image. I could build a VirtualBox virtual machine using this image as IDE boot device. Starting this machine, all it's OK at the beginning, but the Windows XP don't open (in automatic normal mode). I can access to the choice screen of starting mode, to choose Safe mode. In this mode, I see (in the lower line of the screen) the commands running (which is normal) but, after these ones, the screen remains black, with only a dot at the left upper corner. Windows XP don't start.

And this is not due to the physical disk whose I took a vdi image.
I test it with VMware server and it runs perfectly (for this I used a particular sofware, LiveView, which prepares the virtual machine configuration for VMware server (1.0.10 ; LiveView is not compatible with VMware Server 2.x)). But I don't like this solution, heavy, slow, and without USB recognized. It's why I would use VirtualBox.
But It seems it's impossible.

I thank you very much for your help.

Have a good night.