Beginner question: Virtual instead of dual boot?

[agunslinger]

Finally comfortable with W7 and have left XP nehind. However, Im keeping my wife and kids on a dual book (separate hard drives) for Win7 and XP. Is there a way to virtualize the XP hard drive and make it accessible within Win7 so we dont have to log to dual boot each time? Thanks!

 

[Zen00]

Sure, you can do that with stuff like Virtual Box, or the Windows 7 XP Mode (if you have Professional and above). My school teachers do it all the time on their Macs for presentations and such.

Here's a Tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8254-windows-virtual-pc-create-virtual-machine.html?filter

 

[ickymay]

Sure, you can do that with stuff like Virtual Box, or the Windows 7 XP Mode (if you have Professional and above). My school teachers do it all the time on their Macs for presentations and such.

Here's a Tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8254-windows-virtual-pc-create-virtual-machine.html?filter

as Zen advised virtual is scarily good, I use Sun virtual box and it's rock solid, when i set it for seamless mode I have to double check to see if I'm in windows 7 or XP or Vista virtual land :shock:

I used to triple boot XP win7 and Vista but now Im a convert to virtual machines

 

[agunslinger]

Well Ive installed both and it fires up but only goes to a black screen. Im wondering it it only works pointing to a partition on a disk and not a complete separate drive with another OS installed.

 

[jeffreykpry]

What version of Virtual Box are you using?

 

[agunslinger]

I havent installed anything yet.

 

[pparks1]

When you create a virtual machine, you actually have to provide an installable media disc to load the virtual machine. Rather than actually using a hard drive partition, the virtualization technology loads everything within a couple of files...and mounts these files and presents them as hard drives to the virtual machine.

You can take what you already have and convert it..using tools like the free VMWare Converter tool. This will allow you to take a physical computer running XP and turn it into a virtual machine instead. You do have to run this from another computer though and connect over a network to the machine running XP to make the conversion. At the end, you end up with a vmdk file (which is that single file that contains the image of your physical machine).

The other issue you will have here with a virtual machine, is that in order to use it, your other family members will have to boot into your partition, use your operating system and then launch their operating system. Thus, they potentially put the security and stability of your OS at risk...if you don't trust that they know what they are doing.

 

[agunslinger]

Thanks parks for that explanation. It sounds like my "In a perfect world" scenerio really isnt possible. Dual boot is still the simplest most elegant solution.

 

[pparks1]

Thanks parks for that explanation. It sounds like my "In a perfect world" scenerio really isnt possible. Dual boot is still the simplest most elegant solution.

Of course, in a virtual world, one only has to have a backup copy of their virtual hard drive file and they can have their machine functional again.

For example, if you buy a new computer, you simply copy the virtual hard drive file over, create a new VM, point to the existing file and you are right back in business.

Also, you can shut down your VM. Make a backup copy of the virtual hard drive file. Boot up the VM, load patches, software, make changes and do whatever you like. if something blows up, turn off the VM, copy the backup file back and you are right back in business just the way you were.

So, virtual environments certainly have massive advantages as well over dual boots. In your situation, they may not meet the immediate goal though and the other associated benefits I list may not be important to your situation.

 

[Zen00]

Dual booting is faster too. Virtual machines are a bit slower due to the software needed to run them.

 

[pparks1]

Dual booting is faster too. Virtual machines are a bit slower due to the software needed to run them.

Guess it depends upon the host machine. My experience is that virtual machines in VMWare or Sun VirtualBox often run circles around physical counterparts. On my machine at work, I can reboot a Windows Server 2003 VM in 11 seconds. It takes the same physical machine more time than that simply to get through the post...before it could even start to boot the secondary OS on the dual boot system.

 

[antharr]

Dual booting is faster too. Virtual machines are a bit slower due to the software needed to run them.

Guess it depends upon the host machine. My experience is that virtual machines in VMWare or Sun VirtualBox often run circles around physical counterparts. On my machine at work, I can reboot a Windows Server 2003 VM in 11 seconds. It takes the same physical machine more time than that simply to get through the post...before it could even start to boot the secondary OS on the dual boot system.

I agree with you on this one. My XP runs like a champ in VirtualBox and boots up in no time.

I also love the snapshot option. It's like system restore on steroids.