Running XP in VirtualBox on Ubuntu Ultimate Edition

[alanrlow]

I'm not sure if this is possible. I have a laptop with XP home installed on its hard drive. I have an external USB drive with Ultimate Edition (Ubuntu) installed that I can boot from and access the laptops HD and get to my documents etc. I want to know if I can run VirtualBox in Linux and run the installed XP in it instead of dual booting? Problem is I don't have any XP install disks (Acer only give you recovery disks) and don't want to install it anyway, I want to be able to run my existing XP without having to reboot into it, which is time consuming. VirtualBox seems to install images, ie ISO's or install OS's from a disk but I can't figure out if it can use an existing installation. Thanks for any help.

[Dapper Dan]

You can easily run XP inside Virtualbox in Ubuntu. A word of experience... Go with the version from their website. (the Sun Microsystems version) as it has so may more features over the open source version. Features like... USB and Serial support among others.

Call Microsoft and ask them if you can install any version of XP as long as you give them the serial number which is affixed to your box. If so, borrow a copy. install it and provide Microsoft with your serial number. After all, you paid for it and should be able to use it whether inside a virtual machine or actual computer.

[alanrlow]

You can easily run XP inside Virtualbox in Ubuntu. A word of experience... Go with the version from their website. (the Sun Microsystems version) as it has so may more features over the open source version. Features like... USB and Serial support among others.

Call Microsoft and ask them if you can install any version of XP as long as you give them the serial number which is affixed to your box. If so, borrow a copy. install it and provide Microsoft with your serial number. After all, you paid for it and should be able to use it whether inside a virtual machine or actual computer.

No, I don't want to install XP, I want to run the installation I already have with all its programs etc. There would be no point in a clean install of XP, I want to get at all the programs I already have installed on my internal HD. I just want to avoid the time wasting hassle of duel booting back and forth.

[Dapper Dan]

There would be no point in a clean install of XP...

There's always a good reason for a clean install of XP... you'll know it is indeed "clean."

What you're talking about used to be possible with "Win4Lin." I used to do it myself. That was years ago so I don't know if Win4Lin still allows for it.

There might be a way to "ghost" your install, save it to DVD or external drive and transfer your files back to the virtual machine but I'm not sure how you'd do that without XP being installed on it to begin with. I'll check around and see if there might be a way. Maybe someone else knows...

EDIT: Found this:

Boot an existing XP (Physical HD) install with VirtualBox

[alanrlow]

There's always a good reason for a clean install of XP... you'll know it is indeed "clean."

What you're talking about used to be possible with "Win4Lin." I used to do it myself. That was years ago so I don't know if Win4Lin still allows for it.

There might be a way to "ghost" your install, save it to DVD or external drive and transfer your files back to the virtual machine but I'm not sure how you'd do that without XP being installed on it to begin with. I'll check around and see if there might be a way. Maybe someone else knows...

I don't want any install of XP really, once I've got all the bookmarks, messages, rss feeds etc from it I don't want to boot it again. (Wonder if I can run Google Earth in Ubuntu?) I just wondered if thee was a simple way to access programs without duel booting back and forth. But it looks like it's way too complicated for my purposes. Thanks for the reply. One thing I love about this forum is all the smart people eager to help.

[aperla]

Yes Google earth run in Ubuntu....I installed it on my laptop running xubuntu....try
How-to Install Google Earth in Ubuntu | Tombuntu

or

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GoogleEarth

Good Luck