How to use XP and 7 at the same time

huisinro · 18 Mar 2010

MyOldPCs does support converting virtual disks between .vhd. .vmk, .vdi, .hdd. You
select a virtual disk format from 1st drop down, then select the target format from 2nd drop down, and it will does the conversion. To the best of my knowledge, MyOldPCs supports the most disk format conversions.

Let me know if it does not work. We have thousands of people testing it at the moment.

Kari · 18 Mar 2010

Those vhd formats you mention are exactly that: virtual hard drive formats. Each of them needs different settings and configuration files to work with VPC, VBox or VMware. To VPC and VBox you can mount a vhd without these files, they are created when the virtual machine is booted first time.

But those two are exactly the two our OP can not use. That's why I wanted to test all possible scenarios, to get the virtual image mounted on VMware. And that can not be done with your convertion program.

An example: to mount a virtual hard drive to VMware Player, it needs not only the vhd itself, it also needs the configuration file (.vmx, .vmc, .sv2, .sbf, .tib, .ovf or .ova, depending on what type of vhd we have).

MyOldPC creates a working virtual hard drive, OK. But it does not create configuration file, it is normally created only when a new virtual machine is booted first time.

If I want to mount a vhd which does not have settings and configuration files to VMware Player, I have to first mount it to Virtual PC. When I then boot this new virtual machine in Virtual PC, it creates the settings file .vmcx, and a configuration file .vmc. I shut down the machine, and now I have the configuration file needed to mount it to VMware Player.

A bit too complicated, and for OP it's out of the qestion because his rig does not support virtualization.

I am very happy if you show I'm wrong but I'm afraid I'm not.

Kari

huisinro · 18 Mar 2010

you are right that MyOldPCs does not create configuration files for vmware/vpc at the moment. It generates virtual disk files. Only for VMLite, it can parse the .mop file emitted during conversion.

However, once you have a bootable .vhd/.vmk/.vdi file, it's very easy to create a virtual machine. You can use the corresponding vm software to create a new vm, then use the converted virtual disk.

Kari · 18 Mar 2010

I'm home alone this weekend, rest assured I am going to play with different scenarious

severedsolo · 18 Mar 2010

might be worth pointing out that Virtual PC now supports NON virtualising hardware: Windows XP Mode now accessible to more PCs as of today im running it myself on a non hardware virtualising processor

Kari · 19 Mar 2010

severedsolo said:

might be worth pointing out that Virtual PC now supports NON virtualising hardware: Windows XP Mode now accessible to more PCs as of today im running it myself on a non hardware virtualising processor

I just posted this on that thread:

Kari said:

Does anybody know if other virtual machines still need virtualization technology enabled? I mean, is this No-VT update something separate that makes XP mode to run without VT, but Virtual PC itself still needs it when other vm's are run?

Kari

kittleboy · 19 Mar 2010

Kari said:

Got the download link from VMLite, installed MyOldPC Converter. Had to meet my real life friends, too, so I went first to pub. Back now, testing.

Very first, I just checked which file formats MyOldPC supports. After 30 seconds it was clear you can not use MyOldPC to convert your existing system or an image to any format supported by VMware.

See here. First, you can convert an image or existing system using MyOldPC to these virtual HD formats:

Attachment 61632

But to be able to mount a vhd to VMware, it has to be one of these formats:

Attachment 61631

(click images)

The problem is, MyOldPC creates virtual hard disk. But VMware needs a configuration file to mount existing vhd. These configuration files are only created when the new virtual machine is booted first time.

I really do not now how to create this settings file manually. These files contain so much individual information about vhd (MAC addresses etc) that it is not possible just copy it or write a new.

Next, i tried to convert an existing vhd to some other format. it was a no go, as this error message tells:

Attachment 61636

Next I tried to convert my second Win7 rig to vhd using MyOldPC. It worked, and I mounted it succesfully to both VirtualBox and Virtual PC, but this does not help you because you don't have hardware virtualization.

Next step was to download and install VMLite, and to try to mount the vhd I just created to it. No luck there, VMLite installation failed two times, I have no more patience to play with it today.

So our saga continues. This issue interests me quite a lot, so I'm going to test all possible scenarios. I have enough old comuters with different OS's, so I'll find something.

Kari

Oh, man;
That's really nice of you,
THANKS A LOT.

severedsolo · 19 Mar 2010

Kari said:

severedsolo said:

might be worth pointing out that Virtual PC now supports NON virtualising hardware: Windows XP Mode now accessible to more PCs as of today im running it myself on a non hardware virtualising processor

I just posted this on that thread:

Kari said:

Does anybody know if other virtual machines still need virtualization technology enabled? I mean, is this No-VT update something separate that makes XP mode to run without VT, but Virtual PC itself still needs it when other vm's are run?

Kari

sorry kari didnt see that

i will put my ubuntu ISO into a VM see if it works

Kari · 19 Mar 2010

I just wanted to tell about my suspicions, as long as nobody tells other I believe this no-VT XP Mode is just the XP Mode, but if you install some other OS's to virtual machine you still need to have VY enabled in bios.

Kari

severedsolo · 19 Mar 2010

nope, iv just tested it, it loaded Ubuntu no problem, hope it helps :)