On 11/02/2009 11:56 PM, Joachim Backes wrote:
On 11/03/2009 07:24 AM, steve wrote:
Hi,
I recently installed windows 7 on my laptop, on a separate partition,
making it
dual boot. Now, I would like to boot into this installation without
having to
reboot. A casual google shows me that one can in fact boot off an
existing
physical partition using any of the commonly available virtualization
tools on
linux -- qemu, VirtualBox& VMPlayer.
So my question is, has anyone tried doing this and what were your
experiences if
you did ?
I am not averse to the idea of simply reinstalling windows 7 in a
'proper'
virtual environment, but just curious whether reusing the existing
installation
is easily doable. I would be using the windows installation just to test
portability of code that i write. I don't really need to boot into it
often,
neither do i expect it to be lightning fast.
cheers,
- steve
Hi Steve,
did you check
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows
Good advice, but just another thought.
The real issue is this:
It is difficult for Windows to boot two different ways from the same
partition.
Windows uses what they call profiles to distinguish a normal setting,
for instance, and a setting with a docking bay.
Linux creates a dynamic 'profile', if you will, every time it boots. It
is usually trivial for a Linux system to dual boot from the hard drive,
and then use that partition in a virtual context, and back and forth.
It will generally do the right things.
So if you want to dual boot Windows, AND use the Windows partition in a
virtual machine, you MUST tell Windows about these two different
'profiles'. Otherwise, Windows gets very confused about its hardware
drivers and will simply blue screen on you.
It is quite possible to fire up an existing Windows partition as a
Virtual Machine, but don't expect to ever dual boot again unless you
take the type of care needed to set up those pesky profiles.
Good luck!
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