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How to Make VirtualBox From a Physical Partition | eHow.com

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eHow Computers Window s Installation Window s XP Installation Errors How to Make VirtualBox From a Physical Partition

How to Make VirtualBox From a Physical Partition

By Marissa Robert, eHow Contributor , last updated Novemb er 24, 2011

The Windows operating system is designed to be installed onto a single machine and it does not work well if you attempt to move it onto another computer or even just replace the hard drive. This is also true for migrating a Windows installation from a partition on your computer to a virtual machine in VirtualBox. There are some things you can do to work around the limitations and migrate your Windows installation from a partition to VirtualBox.

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Instructions

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Boot to the Windows installation on your partition. This process may differ depending on how you have installed Windows on the partition in your computer.

Things You'll Need

Removable USB drive

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Click "Start," hover over "Programs" and then "Accessories"; then click "Notepad" to open it. Copy the entire text of the Mergeide.reg file in the Microsoft Support article "Y ou Receive a Stop 0x0000007B Error After Y ou Move the Windows XP System Disk to Another Computer" available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082 into the Notepad file. Save the Notepad file as "Mergeide.reg" without the quotes. Do not use the .txt file extension.
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Click the "Start" menu and click the search bar at the bottom of the menu. Enter "cmd" in the field and press the "Enter" key. Select the "cmd" program from the list to open a command prompt. Enter the following commands into the command prompt: CD SystemRoot\Driver Cache\i386 dir/w expand driver.cab -f:atapi.sys SystemRoot\System32\Drivers expand driver.cab -f:intelide.sys SystemRoot\System32\Drivers expand driver.cab -f:pciide.sys SystemRoot\System32\Drivers expand driver.cab -f:pciidex.sys SystemRoot\System32\Drivers exit

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Navigate to the Mergeide.reg file you created in Steps 1 and 2 in the file explorer and right-click on it. Click the option to "merge" the file. When the confirmation message comes up asking if you're sure you want to merge it with the registry, click the "Y es" button. Power down the Windows installation on your partition and boot to the Windows installation where you are using VirtualBox. Create a full image of the entire hard drive using your favorite imaging software and copy it onto a removable USB drive. Be sure to image the entire hard drive and not just the partition you want to make into a VirtualBox. This process may differ depending on which imaging software you are using. Click the "Start" menu, enter "cmd" in the search bar and select "cmd" from the list. Enter "VBoxManage convertfromraw ImageFile.dd OutputFile.vdi" without quotes into the command line terminal. Replace "ImageFile.dd" with the name of the image file you created in Step 8 and replace "OutputFile.vdi" with the name you want to use for the output file. Remember to use the .vdi file extension. Click the "Start" menu and hover over "All Programs." Click "VirtualBox" to launch it, click the "File" menu and click "Media Manager" to run it. Click the "Add" button and browse to the .vdi output file from Step 9. Press the "Finish" button to import it to VirtualBox. Follow the instructions from VirtualBox to set it up as a new machine. Click the virtual machine you just created from the partition and click the gear icon. Click the checkbox to "Enable IO APIC" and enter the number of processors the machine with the partition has. Click "Save." Double-click the virtual machine you created to boot it.
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Tips & Warnings

If you encounter an error, shut it down and boot VirtualBox from a Windows installation DVD. Follow the instructions until you get to the "Repair" option and follow the instructions to repair the virtual partition.

Editing your Windows registry can cause permanent damage to your Windows installation.

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References
VirtualBox: How to Migrate Existing Windows Installations to VirtualBox

Resources
VirtualBox: Windows Build Instructions Microsoft Support: Y ou Receive a Stop 0x0000007B Error After Y ou Move the Windows XP System Disk to Another Computer

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