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I use a dual-boot machine, where almost 100% of the time I use Slackware. But there are a few occasions I need to use the installed and domain registered Windows XP.
Can I "virtualize" the OS that's installed into /dev/sda1?. If so, what's the best software to achieve this? VMware? VirtualBox?
It would be difficult to virtualize a currently installed windows. (It may be possible by running a backup and then restoring it to a virtual machine but would be much more difficult.) Just use a virtual machine manager to install windows. I like VirtualBox just because you'll never have to pay to upgrade or new features or what have you (if really embracing virtualization I'd actually use proxmox, but that's a whole other can of worms most people probably don't really need.) I think you can use your current windows key to run it in a virtual machine so long as it's running on the same computer and only the 1 instance at any one time but you might want to double check that as it's been a long time since I did any reading of that agreement.
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.4,DD-WRT micro plus ssh,lfs-6.6,Fedora 15,Fedora 16
Posts: 3,233
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i have migrated xp from a real machine to a virtual machine once, it was tricky but not impossible
start by creating a clean install of windows on the virtual machine, then using a shared folder copy all the files from your old machine into the virtual hard drive, once that is done boot the vm from a live cd or a Bart disk and replace the documents and settings and windows folders with the ones you copied from the real machine, reboot the vm and do a repair install of windows.
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