"hard disk error" in trying to migrate existing windows XP

[frankharry]

Hi,
I have a dual-boot system with Windows XP Home SP3 and Fedora 13. I'm trying to migrate the Windows XP installation to a virtual machine running in Fedora. I've followed the instructions here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows. I ran the MergeIDE utility when booted in Windows. I converted the raw image using the command

Code: Select all

dd_rescue /dev/sda - | VBoxManage convertfromraw stdin /bulk/OutputFile.vdi 80000000000

The dd_rescue was necessary since there were several bad sectors, and dd stops on any bad sectors. All that worked fine and I have a vdi file. I created a new machine and added the image. When I boot the machine I get a black screen with the message "hard disk error".

If I boot the VM with a Windows XP Professional installation CD (not Home, but it works for troubleshooting), I can enter the recovery console and see that the hard disk C: is fine and all the files are present. I can run chkdsk on the drive and it checks fine. It seems as if I have the problem that the HD controller hardware changed, however I did run MergeIDE, and I don't see this particular error message in searching through the forums as a result of a changed HD controller. I can see from setupapi.log that my controller is considered a PNP0600, which Microsoft lists as a valid controller in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082. It looks like it should work, but I can't get past the boot stage.

I'm running VirtualBox-4.0-4.0.2_69518_fedora13-1.i686 which I installed from the VB web site. The PC is a Dell Dimension 4600, which has a 3 GHz Pentium 4 processor. I can post log files if that helps. Any suggestions as to how to get this working would be greatly appreciated.

[Perryg]

If it is just that you want to get the original PC image working in a virtual machine way not just use disk2vhd?
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... s/ee656415
VirtualBox fully supports the vhd format.

[frankharry]

Just an update - I tried the disk2vhd utility. It looks very promising - I appreciate the suggestion. However, I've had a few issues. It looks like I need to convert the SYS drive as well as C:. If I check both, I get the cannot create snapshots error immediately after starting. If I choose c: only, it seems to go fine until the end. At the end the estimated completion time is displayed and never updated, but it never finishes. I have to hit cancel and then click the upper right X to close the window. When I try to boot from this image in VB, I get a white bar at the bottom of a black screen. It fills to the right, and that's it.

I don't have an install disk for this PC, but I have an XP Pro one (this system is XP home). I can get into the recovery console and run commands. Chkdsk runs fine. The drive looks ok. I'll see where I can get with the recovery console, but so far I'm stuck. I appreciate your help.

[frankharry]

Ahh - I forgot the enable IO APIC option. Now it seems to run. Thanks!