preinstalled windows as a "guest? can it be done?

littlejoe5

I run Mint 10 (and before that several other distros) with Windows installed as a guest in vbox. But several people have brought their Windows computers to me because they are bogged down with virii, or worms, etc. I usually get them cleaned up and working again, and then install linux (Mint 10 nowadays) along with advice to not get on the internet anymore with Windows.

What I want to kn ow is: is it possible to configure Vbox so that it will make use of the existing, preinstalled Windows OS as a guest within linux? If so, how? or where can I get the information to do so?

mfillpot

The quick answer is no, each windows installation has specific drivers loaded for the motherboard, cpu, etc.. which will cause a bsod or constant reboot when the disk to booted with different hardware, such as the virtual hardware used by virtualbox.

saqman2060

mfillpot is right, if you have a dualboot with windows and linux and vbox is installed on linux, vbox cannot access the windows installation. You will have to install windows within vbox.

marc

saqman2060 wrote:

mfillpot is right, if you have a dualboot with windows and linux and vbox is installed on linux, vbox cannot access the windows installation. You will have to install windows within vbox.

Well, you can always try "dding" in the windows installation to a file and then try to "dding" out to a vbox virtual disk...

littlejoe5

Thanks, folks for quick and thorough replies.

mfillpot
Istimsak Abdulbasir
Marc Deop (User)

You not only told me that it wouldn't work, but very reasonable reasons why. The main reason for doing such a thing would be two fold: to open access for the user to all of his/her old files, and to do so within the users already licensed (and familiar) windows install while keeping windows off the internet .

"dding" the old windows to a virtual disk would still have the effect of canceling the Microsoft license, and would be unlikely to work for lack of appropriate drivers.

What I have done is to give Mint10 ro access to the windows partition, so that the user can get over there from the linux install, and copy documents, photos, etc. to work with them in linux. Thanks again

Goineasy9

Giving the Mint install access to the Windows partition, since your original intent was just to access files, is also the best solution. Your also correct to keep Windows off of the internet, I never surf the internet using Windows, especially since I've heard of that new trojan that effects the MBR. The only solution to that is to wipe the HD and reinstall Windows.

Glad you got it worked out.