need a small linux that can run windows inside vm

[linuxnewbie2011]

my "SATA" port in my laptop has snapped off however i can run Linux off usb now i would like a "distro" that is really small to run a "virtual machine" of windows xp inside.
However i have no idea on how to go about this and would really appreciate all the help i could get ta!

ps: all words in "" are new words and need help!!

[Irithori]

What you want is not entirely impossible, but actually not the way to go.
- Your laptop would need to have a cpu that supports virtualization and at least two cores
- RAM. at least 2 Gbyte
- You would need a big usb stick. 32Gbyte at the very least.
- Usb sticks are slower than harddiscs
- A usb stick is not really made to hold a OS for daily use, let alone two.
The multiple and constant writes, that the OSes do, will kill the usb stick soon.

My recommendation would be to either send that laptop for repair or replace it.

[linuxnewbie2011]

Thanks for the reply i had it running with ubuntu and virtualbox but had no usb function in the xp
I have this laptop fujitsu siemens esprimo mobile v5535
Intel Celeron Inside 570 @ 2.26ghz
1gb ddr2 memory
this was good apart from the usb and the fact it took 25gb I was hoping to have a ubuntu os with wifi and no programs apart from virtual box and to have usb access

[linuxnewbie2011]

I have just used nlite and made a small xp that when installed takes 3GB now all i need is the linux and virtual box under 8gb maybe????

[theKbStockpiler]

How about first finding minimalistic Distros that have a Package available for the VM that you need ,unless you are going to compile it yourself. A VM is a big resource user which is not what a small distro is meant for.