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I downloaded and installed VMWare Player. I already have Windows XP installed on this drive. I would like to be able to run XP via VMWare Player off of the installation instead of creating an image and duplicating my existing installation.
- What is the easiest way to do this?
- Do I need VMWare Workstation instead of VMWare Player? If I do, how do I get and install this?
Yes. So I run Ubuntu as the host OS and I would like to be able to run XP via virtualization without having to reboot into XP. VirtualBox does not allow you to run off of an already installed physical partition. – Avery Chan – 2010-08-06T14:44:27.800
What you are looking for is called physical-to-virtual, or P-TO-V. Google those phrases, and you should find help converting your physical partition into a VM (virtual machine.) Once you get the VM working, you can delete the physical partition. – Tom – 2010-08-06T19:41:55.107
This isn't the solution I am looking for. I don't want to convert my physical installation to a virtual one: I want to virtualize my pre-existing installation. The reason for this is that I suspect there are some cases where I will have to boot into WinXP, so I want to have that around in case I do have to. – Avery Chan – 2010-08-07T16:10:51.843
OK, now I understand. :) Why not just create a new XP virtual machine (which would be your 2nd copy of XP)? Since most Windows functions and software run in a VM, you would use the VM most of the time. But when something won't work in the VM, then use the dual-boot version. Wouldn't that give you the best of both worlds? – Tom – 2010-08-07T23:38:45.310
Not exactly. I don't want a XP VM and a "real" installed version of XP; I have some data already saved on my Windows installation, I don't want to have to duplicate data when I boot into Windows. Imagine that I used MS Word to write a document using the XP VM. I save it. For some reason I need to boot into XP (I can't use the VM in Ubuntu). I now have to copy the file to a third source and then access that from my booted XP. – Avery Chan – 2010-08-31T08:54:05.500