Easy q on install fear

[sysyphus]

Greetings!
Have lost **entire** system before on unknown error in my install attempt - so here to quick check, please:

Task: To load a new XP Pro copy into a new Vbox install on a Windows 8.1 machine.
How to ensure that it does install into the new Vbox and doesn't trash the existing original Windows 8 operating system on the machine?
Thank you,

[socratis]

A virtual machine (VM) installation never[1] touches the original operating system. It creates a bunch of files on your hard drive, but that's it. If you create a VM called "WinXP" for example, you'll end up typically with the files:

• WinXP.vbox: that's the "recipe" for your VM, how much RAM, how many CPUs, how many and what kind of hard disks, etc.
• WinXP.vdi: that's the virtual hard drive that holds the data of the VM.

I'm not sure what you did in your previous attempt that would cause your *entire* system to fail, but I've never heard of that one before. You may want to take a look at the user manual, Chapter 1, First steps and mainly at Chapter 1.7, Creating your first virtual machine.

[1] There is a way to potentially create havoc on your original system, if you assign your VM's HD as raw-access to your actual HD, but I highly doubt that you tried that advanced technique.

[sysyphus]

A virtual machine (VM) installation never[1] touches the original operating system.

[1] There is a way to potentially create havoc on your original system, if you assign your VM's HD as raw-access to your actual HD, but I highly doubt that you tried that advanced technique.

Thanks for the info!
I was "helped" by someone that prior time and that could have been it......

[mpack]

I would give one additional tip:

When installing an OS, do it from an ISO (virtual CD) mounted in the VM drive, and never from a physical CD/DVD mounted in the host drive. Both are allowed, but the former - besides many other conveniences - will never result in you accidentally replacing your host OS.

[sysyphus]

I would give one additional tip:
When installing an OS, do it from an ISO (virtual CD) mounted in the VM drive, and never from a physical CD/DVD mounted in the host drive. Both are allowed, but the former - besides many other conveniences - will never result in you accidentally replacing your host OS.

AHA! Just wot I needed to know, thanks. Will help relieve my ever-growing paranoia...

AND I notice you are running XP under and over! I keep finding experienced hacker-type people still using XP everywhere.
(Must be a good reason..)

Interestingly, I use (need!) Dragon Speech-2-text program and the latest version simply won't work properly with Windows8.
So, I'm actually looking at going back to XP. (I have an old paid Pro version never used - only thing is it is version 2002 which probably means the year, I guess.)

[BillG]

I would expect all XP CDs say 2002 - that is the year it was released.