Windows 7 - How to move Virtual XP to a new Installation (RC - RTM)

Question

I recently wiped my Win 7 Release Candidate and repaved with the RTM installation, like you're supposed to.

Of course the old Virtual XP VHD etc won't run on the new RTM installation, citing a "One of the parent hard disks of Virtual Windows XP is missing" fatal error.

Does anyone know a way around this without having to ditch the RTM build and go back to the RC build?

Answer 1

Windows XP Mode creates a differencing disk for each user. This way, it only stores the changes that each user makes compared to the original parent hard disk. If you want to access that disk, you need to reinstall the Windows XP Mode beta (or at least extract or copy the VHD file that it contains).

There is no smooth upgrade path from Windows XP Mode beta to RC (and presumably to RTM), so you will have to reinstall your programs in Windows XP Mode eventually. However, reinstalling the beta will at least allow you to recover any files that are stored on your Windows XP Mode differencing disk.