Need Virtualization Advice

[Derek Trotter]

Have you ever read Spider Robinson's Callahan's Place stories?  At 
Callahan's place there's a tradition of the patrons throwing handfulls 
of peanuts at someone who makes a really bad pun.  Don't worry.  I can't 
throw peanuts that far and in current financial state I'd eat peanuts 
rather than throw them at you.

About your laptop.  I know that for years PC makers have put the data 
needed to restore the computer to its "from the factory" state in a 
hidden partition on the drive.  I didn't know they were no longer 
including a disc to use in case the hard drive goes belly up.  Remind me 
not to buy a Dell.  I want a disc so I can reinstall it after the hard 
drive goes up in smoke. If I'm going to pay for windows, they can spend 
an extra 50 cents to include a dvd.

On 11/22/2011 21:33, Mark Phillips wrote:
> Derek,
>
> Dell laptops no longer come with install media. Windows is installed 
> and all you can do is make a back up copy and a rescue disk. BTW, I 
> live in Phoenix, so your laws are my laws...but we don't share the 
> same in-laws.....oh man, that was really terrible....;)
>
> Mark
>
> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 9:05 PM, Derek Trotter 
> <expat.arizonan at gmail.com <mailto:expat.arizonan at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Mark I understand you don't have the install discs for windows 7. 
>     This has me wondering if there is some copy protection scheme that
>     makes it difficult to copy the windows 7 install disc(s).  If so
>     is there a linux program that will get around it?
>
>     Disclaimer:  I'm not condoning the use of pirated software in
>     violation of any applicable laws where you live.  There is
>     considerable expense involved in replacing a legit copy of any
>     micro$oft OS.  So a backup would come in handy.
>
>     On 11/22/2011 18:40, Mark Phillips wrote:
>>     I have managed to fill up my laptop's dual boot (Win 7 and Debian
>>     testing) 320 GB drive, so I have a new shiny 750 GB drive to
>>     install. I have tried to use Clonezilla, and it keeps failing
>>     because the old drive has 512 byte sectors and the new drive has
>>     4096 byte sectors. No problem; I will just create a system image
>>     of the Windows partitions to move that to the new drive, net
>>     install Debian testing, and copy over my user files.
>>
>>     However, I was thinking that I could get rid of the dual boot and
>>     just virtualize the Windows partition. My questions -
>>
>>     1. Can I create a virtual version of my Windows 7 Home Premium
>>     using the system recovery disk and the backup on my external usb
>>     drive? So far, it installs to the new 750 GB drive with no
>>     issues. I don't have any original media disks.
>>
>>     2. Vmware or Virtualbox? Do either one support usb so I can run
>>     iTunes on my virtual Windows drive? A while ago I was able to get
>>     vmware to run off of the Windows disk partition, but it seemed to
>>     break every time I ran an upgrade on Debian, and it was a pain to
>>     get it to work each time. I don't want to fiddle with this
>>     approach again, unless I have to.
>>
>>     Thanks for your suggestions!
>>
>>     Mark
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>     Sidney "Pa" Larkin
>
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-- 
"That income tax you know it's nothing more than legal robbery"
Sidney "Pa" Larkin

Please protect my address like I protect yours. When sending messages to multiple recipients, always use the BCC: (Blind carbon copy) and not To: or CC:. Also remove all of the addresses from the message body before forwarding the message. These simple measures prevent spy programs from capturing the addresses shown in the recipient list and the message body.

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