virtualbox.org

Hello,

first of all I'm new to all kinds of virtual machines. In the past I only used multi boot systems with Windows XP/Windows 7 (each of them on a different partition). I need Windows XP for development and Windows 7 is my common Workstation. Now I had problems with insufficient diskspace and decided to buy a new harddrive. There I installed Windows 7 and thought I can use, from the old harddrive, my Windows XP in a virtual machine. Therefore I followed the FAQ: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows to create a Windows XP image and run in some problems. I copied this image on the new harddrive and created a new virtual machine. When I started that machine it says the partition table is incorrect. To correct this i used a Windows XP repair CD and run fixmbr/bootfix on the repair console like I did when I had the same problem with Windows XP. Here it didn't solved the problem. Maybe the problem is that the Windows XP partition was not the boot partition.. I hav some advanced skills in computer science, but this is not my field of knowledge.

I have no further idea how to solve the problem. Is here Anyone who did it the same way or has an idea how to solve my problem?!

THX
steph0815


Old system:
Harddrive -- OS -- Size
C: -- Windows 7 -- 140 GB
D: -- Windows XP -- 60 GB

New system:
Harddrive -- OS -- Size
C: -- Windows 7 -- 500 GB
Virtual -- Windows XP -- 60 GB

It's a long shot, but you might try a different route. For this you need to create a new raw image of the old XP partition only (despite what the migration notes said). Then clone that image using CloneVDI (see sticky in "Windows Hosts" forum). CloneVDI has a feature whereby if you "accidentally" give it a partition image of an XP or Win9x install then it will attempt to construct a complete disk image in the clone, including valid MBR and track 0.

Hey mpack,

I tried your solution to create a VM and it didn't worked. When I start the VM the following error occurs: Thats the same error I had with the other solution. With a non multi boot system I would have used the repair disk from WindowsXP. With the first solution I tried that and it didn't worked. Maybe someone has another idea/solution.

THX
steph0815

I suspect you didn't do it properly. Did you really start with a fresh partition image?

If you did then it would have worked, I know because I've done it several times. The only requirement is that it has to be a working partition image with a valid boot sector in sector 0 (the boot sector is always present at the start of a Windows XP partition, regardless of how you previously booted your PC). If CloneVDI doesn't recognize it as a bootable partition image then it will fall back to doing what VBoxManage would do, which is just to dumbly create a VDI wrapper around any old garbage block of data, resulting in a non-booting image.

And btw: CloneVDI makes this as simple as it possibly can be. If you can't get it to work with CloneVDI then I doubt you will get any other suggestions. In fact before CloneVDI the conventional wisdom was that it simply couldn't be done, hence the advice in the old wiki about a whole disk image being required.

Hello mpack,

I made a snapshot of my settings for the CloneVDI tool. There is not much options and I think u mean "generate new UUID" option which has to be enabled. The image itself I created under Ubuntu with "dd if=.. of=..". If I made a misstake, let me know.

Actually, the mistake I had in mind is that you maybe tried CloneVDI on the image you already had, already mangled by fixmbr, instead of making a fresh "dd" image of the partition as I suggested. I wasn't there, and I can't tell from that picture if that's what you did or not. It is however encouraging that CloneVDI is reporting a single NTFS partition.

Another thing you can try is mounting the VDI in another Windows VM, and running chkdsk on it.

Hey mpack,

I only want the winxp system running. Therefore I only made a image from the D: drive of the old system. I made no copy of the whole drive. Thats why only a single NTFS drive is detected.
The image is created with the options I used. U suggested to do:

CloneVDI has a feature whereby if you "accidentally" give it a partition image of an XP or Win9x install then it will attempt to construct a complete disk image in the clone, including valid MBR and track 0.

and I made a snapshot where u can see the settings I have used. I didn't asked what I have done so far, I asked if what is shown on the snapshot ist correct or not.
Maybee there is just missing some infomation from the multi boot system which is stored on the C: drive and without that it might not work. I did not have that much knowledge about WIndows 7 and Windows XP multi boot systems to exclude that kind of problems.

greetz

steph0815 wrote:I didn't asked what I have done so far

And didn't tell either, making it hard to help you.

There is nothing in your snapshot relevant to the problem. This problem is about what is in the image you made with dd.

I think I've made all the suggestions I usefully can. I'm done here.

Hello mpack,
sry don't get it wrong. I appreciate your help. I just don't understand what u need for information from me. I told how I made the image and the settings I used in CloneVDI. I CloneVDI u said is an option where CloneVDI reconstructs the MBR, etc. And I asked if my settings where right. If yes and you have no further idea, ok. If the settings are wrong you maybe can correct me. If you are done anyway, ok. Thanks for the help so far!!

If there is anyone else who has an idea, let me know

greetz
steph0815

You may use a Bart PE or Windows 7 PE attached to the VM as CD-ROM and boot from it.
Then you can use diskpart in the command prompt to check and fix problems: Thist lists disks and partition and activates the first partition.
In Windows 7 PE you have a tool to rewrite the boot code:

Hello scp,

your solution didn't worked too. Now I set a new WindowsXP up and installed all my software. In the end that was the faster solution.

Thanks all for the help!!