Mount o/s from second hard drive.

[Hetal]

I am not sure if this is possible but just thought of putting my
thoughts across and see if this can be done.

I got a brand new computer with vista business on it. I am getting rid
of my old XP computer so i removed the hard drive from my XP computer
and put it in vista as a secondary hard drive. With Vista running, is
it possible for me to mount my secondary hard drive (XP) as a virtual
machine? Or how can i have Vista and XP running at the same time?

Thanks,
Hetal.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

No, you'd have to reinstall XP to that drive so that the OS would be built
around the new hardware. It's highly unlikely that it would function
correctly on another system as the hardware layer developed around the old
system wouldn't match. A repair install would be sufficient, but you'd have
to repair the boot sector afterwards as XP setup will overwrite the Vista
bootloader.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

I am not sure if this is possible but just thought of putting my
thoughts across and see if this can be done.

I got a brand new computer with vista business on it. I am getting rid
of my old XP computer so i removed the hard drive from my XP computer
and put it in vista as a secondary hard drive. With Vista running, is
it possible for me to mount my secondary hard drive (XP) as a virtual
machine? Or how can i have Vista and XP running at the same time?

I've made many old OS installations into virtual machines using Acronis True
Image Workstation with the Universal Restore addon.

ss.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

No, you'd have to reinstall XP to that drive so that the OS would be
built around the new hardware. It's highly unlikely that it would
function correctly on another system as the hardware layer developed
around the old system wouldn't match. A repair install would be
sufficient, but you'd have to repair the boot sector afterwards as XP
setup will overwrite the Vista bootloader.

Acronis Universal Restore resets the Hardware Abstraction Layer, allowing
you to use the same OS installation on completely different hardware or a
virtual machine. I've been using it for a few years and have never had a
problem with it.

ss.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

I've made many old OS installations into virtual machines using Acronis
True Image Workstation with the Universal Restore addon.

It seems with the new Echo release of True Image Workstation, you no longer
need the Universal Restore addon for VM conversion - you only need it for
different hardware.

http://pages.citebite.com/v1d2r1x7x6peg

ss.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Haven't tried it myself, but it certainly could be an option if one is
willing to spend a few bucks.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Gary Mount]

I took an hard drive from an old Pentium II 300MHz computer and virtualized
it using Virtual PC.
Seems to be working just fine.
You create a .vhd from the old hard drive and discard the old hard drive, or
keep it for safe keeping.

I had old programs that will not install on a new system without having to
phone the application vendor and trying to get a new key, amongst other
reasons for keeping the old install.