Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
After some digging around the interweb a while back I discovered that there is two separate methods to running an existing Windows partition in VMware.
I take credit for none of these websites-
http://mazimi.wordpress.com/2007/06/...-within-linux/
This I have tested and does work, however as McMonarch mentioned there is issues with using the same Windows partition. There is a method around this which I will mention further down.
http://www.venturecake.com/a-simple-...pps-in-ubuntu/
Another example of the VMware server method.
http://www.advicesource.org/ubuntu/R...re_player.html
This method involves a little bit of trickery with the program 'parted'. The instructions are clear. I couldn't get this method to work mainly because of my slightly dodgy MBR.
To get around the activation problems with running Windows on effectively two machines I discovered this tutorial that works, I have tested and confirmed this myself.
http://mazimi.wordpress.com/2007/07/...-virtualizing/
This may be technically illegal in most countries so I don't endorse it, but I am willing to make the information available to the community.
Hopefully that helps the previous posters.
EDIT: Thanks gumbi18 for collating this information.
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/4...o2small0lj.pngbodhi.zazen
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
I'd like to note that the instructions for the first method are for users with SCSI hard drives. Using the SCSI instructions on a IDE drive often results in BSODs when launching Windows in the VM. For those using IDE a set of instructions are available here: http://www.squidoo.com/use-existing-...apps-in-ubuntu
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
For the more adventurous, a gentleman by the name of Bob Brandt scripted the whole process - including a modification to the boot process - on the SUSE (SLED 10) Wiki:
http://wiki.novell.com/index.php/SLE..._VMware_Player
It's based in part on Blackmh's guide. Obviously, there may be slight variations for Ubuntu, but if someone feels like making the modifications, this could greatly simplify the process for many people.
Another site giving instructions for this process, with many comments, is http://news.u32.net/articles/2006/07...ical-partition.
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
I went through this and had everything working perfect for vmware. I later found I had issues with youtube playback in Ubuntu, so I followed the steps laid out in the multimedia thread and got my youtube issues resolved.
Now all I get is a black screen after selecting the hardware profile for XP when trying to start the vm.
I rebooted into XP to make sure nothing was wrong with the native drive, then I tried creating a new VM using the XP partition, same results. It never loads the login screen for XP.
Any ideas?
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
I played around with this yesterday for a few hours. It's a total pain in the ****, since XP is so sensitive as to how it handles drivers. I was unable to successfully launch XP, I kept getting the blue screen of death. It appears that the more matured the installation is, the harder it is to get it to work right. I need to spent more hours on this though, I'm not giving up yet.
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
This was the tutorial that got my youtube issues resolved: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=661833
But I have gone so far as removing and reinstalling VMWare to no avail. I would rather not undo all the mutimedia changes I did, but I might have too.
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
I just got this working after a couple of failures, so if you are having any problems w/using vmware to run an os installed on an existing partition, here is what i suggest.
1) Uninstall any vmware stuff that you have (assuming your vmware isn't working)
2) Use synaptic and search for vmware, check all the vmware stuff (probably not needed, but I mark them all to make sure) and install it.
NOTE: It will ask for a serial number, go to the vmware website and register to get one: http://register.vmware.com/content/registration.html
3) Follow the steps in this AWESOME howto:
http://www.squidoo.com/use-existing-...apps-in-ubuntu
WARNING: If you look towards the end of the howto in step 3, it mentions that b/c the vm boots in grub, and if you let grub boot ubuntu (which it does by default unless you changed the menu.lst file) then it could potentially damage some of your files. So don't just start the vm and let it run, PAY ATTENTION!
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
Is this possible if your running vista?
In vista you cant create hardware profiles.
Thanks
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
VMware is commercial product try open source much easier to use: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=679884
Re: Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VMWare
I was able to resolve my issue by removing the xserver-xgl package. I am going to see if there are some settings I can use that will allow me to use both. But for now I'm happy to be functional.