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On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:03:22 +0000 (GMT) Gordon Henderson wrote: > On Sun, 20 Nov 2011, Grant Sewell wrote: > > > On Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:43:59 +0000 (GMT) > > Gordon Henderson wrote: > > > >> > >> I have an old Win2K box (yes, really, with a genuine Win2K sticker > >> on the side!) which I'd like to virtualise (and get rid of the > >> physical PC). It runs an older copy of Quickbooks for doing some > >> of my accounts with. > >> > >> I did try once upon a time, but got stuck with Win2K's devices, > >> etc. it just wouldn't boot, or would crash during booting whinging > >> about lack of disk drive or something. > >> > >> The original box is an older Dell 800MHz PIII which runs W2K > >> adequately - off an 8GB disk. When I tried last time I just took a > >> binary image of the disk and fed that into VirtualBox - without > >> spending too much more time on it. > >> > >> What's my chances of it working now? (or getting it to work at > >> all?) > >> > >> Gordon > > > > As I understand it, Virtualbox will play OK with raw images of disks > > (or even with partitions, if you edit the appropriate file and > > point it in the right direction), but one of the vboxmanage > > commands should allow you to convert your dd'd disk image into a > > VirtualBox disk. > > From what I recall, that wasn't the problem - the issue I had was > starting Win2K on what's effectively different underlying hardware > -as if I'd taken my disk out of the Dell and put it in an HP box (for > exmaple) I have the original Win2K disk but it didn't help me then as > it couldn't see the CD rom drive... > > I was just wondering if anything had improved at the hardware > emulation stage to make this sort of migration easier... > > Cheers, > > Gordon That, I'm afraid, I don't know. However, if you still have the Dell box to hand, you could try booting it up and then running the "SysPrep" tool. Once it's done, shut down, remove harddrive, take image, add into VM and away you go. When it boots up in the VM it will go looking for new hardware, find it and ask for drivers (if necessary). Note though, after SysPrepping it you shouldn't boot it on the old hardware again or you'll have to re-SysPrep it. Grant. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq