Allready preinstalled xp on hdd i want to use on VM

[NickKritikos]

Dear gentlemen.
I need to run VM on win10 to run an HDD that contains win XP32bit and a work program that will not run on 10s.The thing is that because I will have to pay the program`s creator to come and install it again on my VM , I wish I could just "bind" the VM to use the already existing XP HDD with its settings without having to reinstall the OS and program of course.

Thank you very much in advance.
Best regards.

[mpack]

Migrating : https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows

Disk2VHD : Disk2VHD

Google "p2v site:forums.virtualbox.org".

[Martin]

Depending on the way they "bind" the activation to the installation this may not work because even by using the existing installation you will have many changes in the (virtual) hardware configuration.

[NickKritikos]

Thank you very much for your fast replies.
I will give it a try though I`m not holding high expectations , but I`ve already installed a copy of xp on a VM and it works like a charm.So if I do not manage to do anything with your suggestions , I will phone the guy to reinstall it on my VM.Anyway thank you very much again.

Best regards

[NickKritikos]

After about 3 hours i gave up.Tried all of your suggestions but it did not work at all.I do not know if it is so hard , or it is my poor knowledge , but i could not make to even boot from the drive.
Anyway since the fresh copy works perfect , i will reinstall the legacy app in it.
I have a new problem now.I want to connect it to an allready existing small network of 3 PCs but i cannot do it.
The other PCs run windows xp , but my VM is not connecting to them.Is it possible to not be able to connect because the host system is windows 10?If that is the case i really need to work this around a.s.a.p.
Thank you once more for your patience in my poor knowledge of VMs.

[BillG]

Does your physical network have a DHCP server (ie do the machines get an IP automatically)?

If they do, setting the vm network mode to bridged should solve your problem. The vm should work in the same way as the physical XP machine did, as far as networking is concerned. The OS on the host has no effect on this.

If your physical network uses static IPs, you will need to give the vm a network config similar to what the physical machines use.

[NickKritikos]

I`ve changed to bridge an now works fine , as if plug and play fine.
Thank you once more.