VM but not XP mode

XP Mode (original Windows Virtual PC XP mode) uses a base vhd, located in C:\Program Files\Windows XP Mode. You can make copies of the XP Mode virtual machine, but they all use this base virtual disk. If you copy and modify the XP Mode vmc and vmcx files to be used with other virtual machines, you also need to delete all references to this base disk.

Copying existing XP Mode or any other virtual machine, you need to modify both vmcx and vmc files. This extract is from my tutorial Virtual XP Machine - Copy:

Every virtual hard drive (vhd) created with Virtual PC consists of three files if it is turned off, or of four files if it is hibernated or running. The file extensions for these files are:

• .vhd = Virtual Machine virtual hard drive image
• .vmc = Virtual Machine settings file
• .vsv = Virtual Machine saved state file
• .vmcx = Virtual Machine description and registration settings

The tutorial also shows what you have to change in these files when copying virtual machines.

Anyway: I have no XP computer home. To test Disk2vhd, I made a new vhd from my existing XP Mode. I then created a new virtual machine using this vhd, and I had absolutely no problems.

One thing to consider is the difference in hardware setup; maybe it lies behind this issue. Virtual machines use emulated hardware so all the drivers are different. For example, all Virtual PC machines emulate the simpliest of all GPU's, old S3 card.

I have not forgotten what you said earlier, but if you tested your vhd on VirtualBox, and if it worked, at least we could confirm there's nothing wrong with the vhd.

Still searching...

Kari

I found this on http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...ee656415.aspx:

To use VHDs produced by Disk2vhd, create a VM with the desired characteristics and add the VHDs to the VM’s configuration as IDE disks. On first boot, a VM booting a captured copy of Windows will detect the VM’s hardware and automatically install drivers, if present in the image. If the required drivers are not present, install them via the Virtual PC or Hyper-V integration components. You can also attach to VHDs using the Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 Disk Management or Diskpart utilities.

I guess it means I am completely wrong thinking your issue could be because of hardware difference.

Still searching... I'll try to find an XP machine tomorrow, to virtualize with Disk2vhd.

Kari

I just remembered something very important, two restrictions when mounting a vhd to Virtual PC:

First, you can only mount an IDE vhd. Second, and maybe more important: the maximum size of a Virtual PC virtual hard disk is 127 gigs. It's not the actual size of your vhd that matters, it is the original size of partition you virtualized with Disk2vhd.

So, if you had let's say 25 gigs of apps and files on that XP but if the partition was over 127 gigs, let's say 150 gigs, your image should be around 25 gigs but Virtual PC looks the maximum size of that disk (image), which equals with the size of the partition, in this example 150 gigs which is too big to mount to Virtual PC.

A friend of mine told me about this article just minutes ago when we were chatting: Fix Virtual Windows XP Mode VHD Cannot Install or Attach in Windows 7 Error My Digital Life

Kari

OK, now we are getting somewhere. I attach a vhd resizer application, unzip and install. The app is quite straight forward to use.

Don't forget to make a copy of the vhd before trying to resize it! I would use the fixed size option.

Kari

EDIT: Tested something, I thing using Disk Management in Win7 is a better alternative:

• Attach your XP vhd to Seven (Virtual Hard Disk - Create and Attach VHD)
• Defrag the vhd
• Shrink the vhd
  
  It just might work...
  
  Kari

its really funny, that you edited your post and put try the Windows 7 shrink in Computer manager, as I remembered that I could attach my VHD file, and in the past I saw a shrink option (i looked that that waaaay before I started playing with the VHD file), and remembered it.

So, at this moment, i mounted the VHD file, and am using Windows 7 shrink option, and let it set itself to the max allowable shrink. it looks like it will take some time.

I will let you know what happens.

Thanks for hanging on with me, to get this resolved. Hopefully this will be the answer. I am going to download the tool you linked here, just in case there is an issue.

thanks again, and I will let you know what happens.

__
Addendum
__
It is shrinking now, but whats odd, is that it doesnt show a progress bar, just the default Windows Busy rotating circle... but the hard drive light is sold, so i know it is working. I image this process if going to take quite a long time.

It can take hours

This is very interesting to me, I'm quite interested in virtual computing. It's always nice to learn something new.

Let's hope you get it under the magical 127 gig mark!

Kari