Trying to Convert a Windows XP disk to VirtualBox

[Stephen]

im not fully familiar with P2V for virtualbox, however the only time i
did a P2V using the VMware converter it required a 3rd machine to do
the work. and image directly to the server.

however what you can do, and maybe a good idea anyhow is use something
like clonezilla to make an image of that partition and then restore it
into the virtual machine and run a repair install?

On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 11:49 AM, Mark Phillips
<mark at phillipsmarketing.biz> wrote:
> I have a dual boot machine with two physical drives - Windows XP Pro and
> Debian testing. I need to replace the Windows drive with another drive to
> add more space to the Debian drive. Instead of just chucking the Windows
> drive drive (only 40GB and the machine only has space for two hard drives),
> I thought I would virtualize it and run it in virtualbox on the Debian
> machine. I am having no success in (1) finding a lot of information on how
> to do this and (2) actually accomplishing the task.
>
> I have tried using vmware vcenter converter 4.0.1. I have the client running
> on one Linux machine (hammerhead), the Windows source on another (basenji),
> and the destination folder is a windows share on a third machine (goofy).
> After struggling to get it to run, it dies within a minute with an error:
>
> FAILED: Unable to create a VSS snapshot of the source volume(s). Error code:
> 2147754758 (0x80042306).
>
> It is able to find the client and source folder with no issues. Googling the
> error code and message did not give me any good results. I had one warning
> on the config setup screen - "Unable to locate the required Sysprep files.
> Please upload them under /var/vmware-vcenter-converter-standalone/sysprep/xp
> on the Converter server machine." I found the .cab on the Microsoft site and
> put it in the required location, but I still get that warning.
>
> My questions -
>
> 1. Anyone know how to get VMware converter to work? My assumption, after
> some reading, is that virtualbox will be able to import the output from
> vmware converter.
>
> 2. Other suggestions for recipes to virtualize a physical Windows XP drive?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Mark
>
> P.S. The other reason I want to make this work, is that I have a new laptop
> with Windows 7. I planto install Debian and virtualize the Windows 7
> partition and get rid of the dual boot. This excercise with the Windows XP
> drive is my test bed to see how to make it work. I am not sure if there are
> any extra gotchas to virtualizing Windows 7.
>
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-- 
A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from
rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

Stephen