Virtualizing Existing XP Install

[Les Mikesell]

Tod wrote:
> Warning, virtualization newbie...
> 
> I've got an install of XP pro, service pack 2 on a standalone machine. 
> Since I don't use it for more than a few apps I'd like to try out Linux 
> virtualization with Linux being the primary O/S and windows running on a 
> virtual machine.
> 
> I imagine I'll need to move the windows install maybe using parted, 
> create a new partition to install linux on, get it installed, along with 
> the virtualization software, and then get it to fire up windows without 
> it knowing its running virtually.  I've searched around for instructions 
> on doing this and really haven't found anything useful.
> 
> Is my plan valid?  I'd like to avoid re-installing XP but I will if I 
> need to.  I plan on sticking with Fedora so I'd appreciate 
> recommendations on virtualization software.  This is running on an old 
> AMD Athlon machine so no dual processing going on.
> 
> Any pointers, tutorials, or suggestions for doing this on an existing 
> Fedora machine would be appreciated too.  I have a couple of other boxes 
> I might like to try virtualization on.

With VMware you can run from a raw existing partition, but XP will 
insist that you re-register it every time you switch from native booting 
to virtual access.  You can use the vmware converter 
http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/features.html to turn it into 
an image file.  If you have the disk space you could have both until you 
are sure you don't need the real partition.  If you need the disk space 
but want to have an easy way back, you could use 'clonezilla-live' to 
save an image copy of your windows disk that you could restore later: 
http://www.clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com