Windows 7 - copy of xp on computer.. can I install under virtual pc

Sorry, my question was vague. What I mean is, if I have a dual boot on one physical drive, all the attempts I've made to create a Virtual Machine with Virtual Box using an image made from either OS partition have failed. I'm just wondering if it only works if you have plain vanilla C: with one OS on it and make an image from that.

So far with VirtualBox the only VM to successfully boot is one made from an XP install CD. At this point it's just curiosity more than anything. I don't really need to run a VM. I'm just wondering why it seems some systems crank one out in 5 minutes and other's it's next to impossible.

If I was going to use it at all I'd rather not have to do 2 weeks worth of program installs. That kind of kills off the fun.

Two possible fixes if you are interested to try:

(1) Mount the problem vhd as a second hard drive to a working XP virtual machine (I understood you have one, created with install CD).

Find and copy file hal.dll from virtual machine's boot drive C: to the second drive, folder is Root:Windows\System32.

Shut down the virtual machine, unmount second drive, mount it to a new virtual machine and try if it boots.

OR:

(2) Boot the problem virtual machine from XP install CD. Start Recovery Console from Welcome to Setup screen (press R ).

Login with administrator password of the virtual machine (same as the XP the system image was created from). Make System32 directory active (command: cd c:\windows\system32).

Type: expand d:\i386\halacpi.dl_ and hit Enter.
Type: copy halacpi.dll hal.dll and hit Enter, hit Y to give permission to overwrite

After both alternative (1) and (2):

Exit and reboot. Update the drivers, reboot one more time and install VirtualBox Guest Additions.

One more reboot and you should be ready to go.

Kari

Seems I can never get straight info about the source image. Perhaps making an nLite disc is more attuned to what I want. I'll check that out.

One point i forgot from my earlier post:

I've had to do that hal.dll thing (using recovery consol) every single time I've used an XP image done from a dual boot system. This has every time solved the issue.

Kari

Thanks Kari. I'm more or less just trying to get a feel if I want to pursue this in the future. I just put c# on my Vista system and it's slow slogging with blurred forms, so I guess I was looking for an easy diversion. Seems like not much is simple anymore... 'cept maybe a 4 line AutoIt3 program.

Maybe you can help me out with a bit of insight. I have an XP VM running on Vista64. But I have 2 network problems. The first is, the first VM I attempted didn't work so I deleted it, the dummy network node from that is still in the workgroup.
Don't know how to delete it.

The second problem is, I can see the files on the VM from the host PC, I can see the files on Windows Seven on the same workgroup, but when I try to access the files on the host PC from the VM using Network Neighborhood, I get a login dialog. I don't have any password setup in any of the networking. All firewalls are disabled.

I feel like I'm almost there because I can access the internet(I'm using the VM with firefox here posting) at nearly full speed, and I can access 2 out of the 3 machines in the workgroup. Just a couple of flies in the ointment.

Thanks for any pointers(I would have posted in Vista forum but there's no dedicated virtualization subforum.)

edit: got most of it. All I have to do to browse the folder on the host is enter a user name with no password. Not that big a deal. The only thing still elusive is the shared folder bit that's supposed to work with
"net use x: \\vboxsvr\sharename or sometimes it's said \\vboxsrv\sharename but either gets "network path not found"

edit2: nevermind. the hell with the shared folder. I'll just use the network.

Miles, please let me say this: those 'edit's' made me laugh. I can see you are trying!

How to remove a non-existing computer from a workgroup is something I do not have an answer. I know how to remove a computer from when it still exists, you just change the workgroup on that computer. I'll look if I can find something.

Which NIC your VM is using? Can you see host's drives on VM's My Computer?

Kari

Hi. Thanks for the help. I think I have it now as good as I can expect. Too soon to mess around with advanced stuff. For instance, if I map the Public folder on the host machine and set it to auto login when XP comes up, when I click on it, there's a small delay, then it pops up a login dialog. But I only have to put in username. So once a session. No big deal. I did get rid of the phantom network neighborhood denizen. Looks like I had storage still associated with the first attempted VM. I just deleted that and the shadow went away. Actually works pretty good. I enabled 2D acceleration but now I think I'll go for 3D. I know a guy on another board did all this just so he could tweak it for months, get all his apps perfect... then made an image and put it on a physical C: drive. That's being meticulous!!

The reason it took 2 attempts is I used nLite. Never got that to work before. I tried to trim too much stuff off. The second time I left everything on except for games and internet games. No squawks.

I got a USB 3.0 card today. So I think the VM will be on the back burner while I set up how to power all these docking stations and external drives with battery backup. If Satan came by and threatened me I'd just say, "you think you've got hell? Just take a look at the wires under my desk over there!"

Good to know it's working.

Thanks for all the suggestions.