Booting WinXP in VMware via Native Disk

[fogster]

I've recently replaced my small WinXP-only hard drive with a much bigger drive. The primary OS is Ubuntu, but 'sda4' is a 60GB NTFS partition that's a clone of my Windows hard drive.

I never bothered trying to boot Windows from this, since Windows apparently doesn't like when it's not near the front of a disk. So the machine runs Ubuntu only; WinXP just sits there.

I'm trying VMware now, though, and am having some problems... I want to boot from that partition.

First of all, I'm running vmware as root to avoid permission issues.

I try to add a 'hard drive' to the VM as a 'physical disk' and set the partition (not a whole disk, but a partition) as /dev/sda4. I get the error:


Failed to load partitions for device /dev/sda4:
The partition table is invalid.

I then tried mounting sda4 via ntfsmount, but that didn't help anything so I unmounted it again. (I can mount it just fine, though, that way. It just doesn't help VMware any.)

I think the problem might have to do with a crappy partition job (logical vs. extended), but I'm able to mount and use /dev/sda4 fine otherwise, so I'm not so sure...

In case it matters...

$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 19457.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 4863 39062016 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 4864 5112 2000092+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 5113 12407 58597087+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sda4 12408 19457 56629125 7 HPFS/NTFS

Can anyone at least tell me what's wrong? (Ideally, how to make it work...) Can I fix this without deleting partitions?

[eb4fbz]

I have the same problem, did u find any solution?

This is my fdisk:
/dev/sda1 * 1 4863 39062016 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 4864 5106 1951897+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 20525 25393 39110242+ 7 HPFS/NTFS <-- This is the XP partition
/dev/sda4 25394 30401 40226760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 4864 5106 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I did a default ubuntu gutsy installation and after i did a dd from the old hard disk NTFS partitions to the end of the new one. I don't know why ubuntu created the swap in an extended partition:confused:

[fogster]

I did not find a solution. I lost interest and now have two computers. ;)

I think it has something to do with partitions being weird. I don't understand it in full.

[gumbi18]

Fogster you must select both the Windows partition and the partition that Ubuntu is installed on. This is so that GRUB can load. Otherwise yes you will get a partition error because the Windows MBR is looking for GRUB but can't find it...

So when VMware server gives you the option of selecting partition's select:
/dev/sda1
and
/dev/sda4


Also check out my sticky for another method to booting existing Windows partitions.:)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=631671

[eb4fbz]

I've found a solution for our problem, this is what i did to fix it:

First i moved xp partition in table (not physical) to the second position, xp couldn't like to be after an extended partition. This is my fdisk -l /dev/sda after the operation:

/dev/sda1 1 4863 39062016 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 * 20525 25393 39110242+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 25394 30401 40226760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 4864 20524 125796982+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 4864 5106 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 5107 15405 82726686 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Now there is a problem. Becase we cloned the ntfs partitions to a different disk in a different position, start sector embedded in the ntfs filesystem don't agree it's new position, so we need to fix it manually:

First do a fdisk -ul /dev/sda to find the partition start sector:

/dev/sda1 63 78124094 39062016 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 * 329718060 407938544 39110242+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 407938545 488392064 40226760 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 78124095 329718059 125796982+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 78124158 82027889 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 82027953 247481324 82726686 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Convert 329718060 to hex = 13A7192C
Swap the digits in pairs 13A7192C = 2C 19 A7 13

hexedit /dev/sda
Change the 4 bytes starting at 0x1C with the new starting sector number.
If you had the old xp in the beginning of the old disk, you will overwrite 3F 00 00 00 (63).
Exit hexedit saving changes with Ctrl+X

Edit boot.ini, originally:


timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
In my case i had to change partition numbers to:


timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition([B]2)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition([B]2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Now you should be able to boot that xp partition again from grub, my menu.lst entry is typical:
title XP hd0,1
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

But booting it from vmware needs some tweaking, drivers cleaning and so, or you will get a BSOD. I'm working in this now, but that's another story.

This is a solution for fixing a cloned&moved ntfs partition, mystery solved, i hope it helps!

[Jerrac]

Did you ever get it working? I can get it to boot, but then I get a BSOD. I tried it by selecting my windows and linux partitions, windows, linux, and swap, and also the entire disk. Gave me a BSOD everytime right after the Windows XP logo appeared.

I also created a new hardware profile just for VMWARE.

[Jerrac]

Ok, figured it out. You need to install the scsi controllers inside of your xp install before you boot it in vmware. :D Now, just need to increase the video memory...