The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Running OS on old drive under Windows 7

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by jfh3, Jun 27, 2011.

  1. jfh3

    jfh3 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    15
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    I would like to run a Windows XP setup from a T43 as a virtual machine on a W520.

    If I put the old hard drive in the Ultrabay, can I just boot the drive under XP mode? Should I install the W520 drivers for XP first?

    I don't want to run this as a separate boot, I want to run it as a virtual machine so I can run some aps that I no longer have the install media for seamlessly. However, that means I can't use the image that MS provides for the OS either ...

    Can someone give me an overview of the high level steps involved?
     
  2. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

    Reputations:
    4,018
    Messages:
    6,046
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    206
    It probably won't work as Windows is configured upon installation to boot on specific hardware, ie the original computer. However, you could try booting the OS in safe mode by holding down F8 once you're past the BIOS.

    EDIT: virtualizing it may be possible by using commercial solutions like VMware, as I'm pretty sure that VirtualBox cannot virtualize an existing OS.
     
  3. jfh3

    jfh3 Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    15
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Looks like Vmware converter and player will do what I want. I'll post more here after I figure it out.
     
  4. debguy

    debguy rip dmr

    Reputations:
    607
    Messages:
    893
    Likes Received:
    4
    Trophy Points:
    31