using Virtualbox or similar program to salvage operating system

[spank_my_toaster]

hi, I use ubuntu 10.04 on my desktop pc and i have on my laptop installed Windows XP with Office 2007. The office suite has been activated for the third and last time, because windows crashed on me twice before, prompting my move to linux. while this third activation of office is still working i was wondering if there was some way to salvage this activation, so i don't lose it should it fail, which it most likely will at some point in the future. i was thinking if there was a software that could copy an already installed operating system and turn it into a virtual machine. That software would of course have to run in an windows environment.

I know i can use openoffice, and i do. Its great to get things done quickly, but my college course is specific to office 2007, and i have to memorise the interface to be able to write up procedures from memory.

I'm not sure but xp is probably very hardware specific so as long as i run that virtual machine on my laptop with a linux distro i should be fine.

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this query, in which case if someone could please direct me to where i should be posting this i would be very grateful.

[coopstah13]

this won't work, windows doesn't let you move to new hardware, even if the hardware is only virtual, it will break the system

you can use a software like clonezilla to take an image backup of your machine should you need to restore it

also, most of the time, when you use up your activations you can call customer support and they will take care of it

[spank_my_toaster]

I was going to use the virtual machine on the same hardware, only on a linux distro and using virtualbox.

I don't think Microsoft would be too keen to help in this case other than to suggest i buy another office suite.

I have considered Clonezilla, but i posted here to make sure there were indeed other ways.

[coopstah13]

doesn't matter, virtualization software works by abstracting out the actual underlying hardware, so windows will see this as a new machine

moving it between virtualbox installs once installed in VM wouldn't be an issue

[Rubberman]

doesn't matter, virtualization software works by abstracting out the actual underlying hardware, so windows will see this as a new machine

moving it between virtualbox installs once installed in VM wouldn't be an issue

Precisely what I do. I run Windows, Office, Visual Studio, et al on a VirtualBox VM, which I can move around as desired. The virtual machine looks like the same hardware to the OS, so it won't think you have installed it on a new machine. So, I would suggest that you contact MS tech support and explain that your system is failing and you need to install on new "hardware" and that they need to authorize a new activation for the OS and other MS products you "own".

Anyway, this is the primary reason why I have migrated just about all of my applications off of Windows and on to Linux - the fact that I don't really own the software, but really just "rent" it from MS. Not acceptable to me. If I cannot move it to new systems as needed, then why am I paying them all that $$?

[nujinini]

... If I cannot move it to new systems as needed, then why am I paying them all that $$?

A loud AMEN from the far east!