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I have just successfully done what i feel is the first of many, Preserving instances of XP in Virtual box. Had a XP user with an IDE disk 80 GIG with his Xp on flagging, failing very slow.. Spent a bit of time de cluttering Defrag, etc and then SysPrep so the machine is sealed up ready for deployment. So, Got a new PC ( Barebone from Novatech) Installed Mint 16 Cinnamon as its the easiest Desktop to deal with ( I think) for a Win user. Connected the Old Disk with IDE usb adapter. used Disks ( program) in Linux to make a disk image, I know I could use dd etc but this is so easy and reliable. then the command VBoxManage convertfromraw -format VDI XPIMAGE.img XPIMAGE.vdi converted the 80 gig image in about 25 mins **********The VBox in the Mint repro's fail!!! ************** *****************I had to download the newest Deb file from Oracle and install that****************** some issue with it not thinking the BIOS Virtuisation was turned on! (had me worried for a bit!)********************** Then just Set up a New Machine in V Box (XP type) Left the Disk to add later, Fired up VB and in Settings Storage added a new Disk under the Controller ( the XPIMAGE.vdi) set it as Primary Master. Started the Machine and Windows starts up and after putting in the LIC code comes up all OK! just the Guest addons to install for the Graphics etc and it all works fine. Spent 20 mins with the amazed new owner of his revived machine, with a little teaching on the Linux side, and he seemed to pick it up OK, Linux and Virtual box. Advised him not to rely on the XP as a long term solution but he now can check out what Mint has to offer along side using his familar XP. Win Win ! Next is a Dead laptop Win 7 cant sys prep this but I am going to have a go at image and convert to VDI just for fun and see if it will resurrect! -- ________________________________________________________________________ Regards Kevin Lucas Minions Post Master(Sub) A dedicated Linux user /usr/bin/microsoft Skype minions_shop www.minionsbandb.co.uk www.tearooms.minionsbandb.co.uk FaceBook Minions_shop Po House, Minions, Liskeard Cornwall PL14 5LE 01579363386 -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq