Need Help Getting Started & Installing Games

[emily]

I'm new to virtual box, and not super technologically savvy. I bought a new laptop not knowing that I wouldn't be able to play The Sims 2 on windows 8, and that's what brought me here. I followed this tutorial from lifehacker:

1.Download WindowsXPMode_en-us.exe from Microsoft. You'll need to run the validation tool to prove your copy of Windows is valid.
2.Then use 7-Zip or another archive tool to open the EXE file as an archive.
3.Within that archive, find the "sources/xpm" file within it, and extract that folder to your hard drive.
4.Finally, in the extracted xpm file, you'll find a file called VirtualXPVHD. Rename it with a VHD extension.

In VirtualBox, open the VirtualXPVHD virtual machine, and voila! You've got Windows XP Mode (running Windows XP Professional) in Windows 8, no need for the XP license.

When I open my vm, I get a black screen with a message that says, "FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted." I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I just want to be able to install my digital download of TS2 and some expansion packs, so if anyone could help me get past the black screen and do that (in layman's terms), I would really appreciate it! thanks.

My info: I'm using version 4.2.6. r82870, 64 bit.

[emily]

attached is my guest log.

[mpack]

AFAIK the blog you've been following is BS, the XP image will want to be activated which will fail on the wrong host. However, what you've done doesn't seem to be illegal so what the hey. You need to mount the WindowsXP.VHD disk image in the VM you've created (unmount the "emily.vhd" file first). Copy the VHD into the VM folder before you mount it.

For best graphics performance, enable 3D acceleration in the VM settings and install the Guest Additions in XPs safe mode. However VMs are not really suitable for gaming, so I wouldn't get my hopes up too high.

[emily]

How do you mount/unmount? I'm a complete beginner, and I think I may be in over my head. I may have to just pay to downgrade to windows 7.

[mpack]

How do you mount/unmount?

When you first created the VM you will have been asked whether you wanted to create a disk, or use an existing disk (the VHD you have). That would ideally have been the time to select the latter.

Now that the VM already exists you have to discard the new disk you told it to create, then mount the one that should have been there.

1. First copy WindowsXP.VHD into the VM folder (C:\Users\radioshack\VirtualBox VMs\emily).
2. Run the VirtualBox GUI, select File|Virtual Media Manager, find "emily.vdi" in the list of hard disks, then Release (detaches disk from all VMs) and then Remove (from list of registered media) it. Answer Yes on removal when it asks if you want to delete the physical file.
3. Go to the VM settings, Storage section. Click the hard disk controller, click the icon to add a hard disk to it, choose "existing disk" and browse to the WindowsXP.VHD inside the VM folder.

That should be it. Don't be put off, it's really quite simple.

Incidentally, I see you still have the Guest Additions virtual CD mounted. Remember to unmount that, which you do in settings by selecting the CD drive and using the panel on the right to set it to empty. There's also a menu in the VM window which can be used for this.