[GRLUG] Windows XP from dualboot to VirtualBox

[Dan Taylor]

On 07/30/2011 05:09 PM, Eric Beversluis wrote:
> On Sat, 2011-07-30 at 16:44 -0400, Eric Beversluis wrote:
>> On Sat, 2011-07-30 at 15:31 -0400, Dan Taylor wrote:
>>> On 07/30/2011 03:18 PM, Eric Beversluis wrote:
>>>> I've got an old computer with an old Fedora and Windows XP in a dualboot
>>>> setup.
>>>>
>>>> I want to move the XP to a VirtualBox VM on a Windows 7 box.
>>>>
>>>> I made a .tib of the XP C:\ partition with Acronis (older version) onto
>>>> an external HDD.
>>>>
>>>> I then connected the HDD to my Win7 box used a current version of
>>>> Acronis to convert the tib to a vhd.
>>>>
>>>> I then used that vhd to create a VM in VB on the Win7 box. 
>>>>
>>>> When I tried to start the new VM I got this error: "GRUB Geom Error_".
>>>>
>>>> It came to me that this may have to do with the dual-boot setting of the
>>>> XP partition. But what would be the workaround?
>>>>
>>>> I'm thiking that I should uninstall the Fedora and get the Windows
>>>> install free of GRUB. But how would I do that? I want to save this
>>>> installation because of old programs running on it.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>> Mount an XP CD in VirtualBox with that XP vhd mounted and get into the
>>> recovery console and use fixboot / fixmbr
>>>
>> The VM I'm trying to create I'm calling 'Sony.'
>>
>> Not sure I'm understanding what to do. I put the XP installation disk in
>> the host CD drive and in the settings for the 'Sony' VM I set the CD/DVD
>> drive to "Host Drive D." But when I try to start it, thinking it should
>> boot from the CD now, I get the error message "Cannot open host drive D:
>> \ for read only access. Check the permissions of that device. Verr
>> Access Denied."
> Well, I punted. Rather than try to fix the VHD, I went into the old
> computer, used Disk Management to delete the Fedora and the boot
> directories. Sure enough, all I got was the GRUB prompt. So I inserted
> my PCMCIA CD drive (no built in CD drive; wouldn't boot from a USB CD
> drive) and booted from the XP installation disk, ran fixboot and then
> fixmbr and the XP is coming up fine. 
>
> So I'll just make a new tib/vhd and hope that that was the correct fix.
>
> Thanks.
If you're just copying the partition over you'll need to create a new
MBR on the virtual drive (which is what fixmbr does), so you'll be back
to square one unless you plan converting the entire drive to a vhd
(which wouldn't make a lot of sense since you now have unpartitioned space).
Hopefully someone else can offer more help, I'm on my way out the door
at the moment.  Best of luck.

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