An even easier solution would be to use VMware Comverter<https://www.vmware.com/products/converter/> It will convert your physical machine to a virtual machine. It has the ability to compress the image down and reduce the hard drive size down to something manageable so you can put it on an external drive.
Then you can blow away the laptop and install your favorite distro and run the VM under your favorite virtual machine client like virtual box<http://www.virtualbox.org> This would save you the hassle of contacting the manufacture for a disk, Reinstalling windows in a VM, spending a week and a half reinstalling drivers, updates and software. Adam Flaig "Its never too late to become what you might have been" On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 1:00 AM, Dante Lanznaster <dant...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 4:28 PM, Jeff Lasman <jpli...@nobaloney.net>wrote: > >> Looks interesting. I currently have a laptop running (only) Windows XP. >> Microsoft says I can upgrade to Windows 7, but I don't have any idea how; >> The >> laptop is not compliant. >> >> So I suppose I can buy a new computer. If I do, I have no idea how to get >> Windows 7 off the box in condition to install on a new computer. >> >> Anyone know if it's safe to run XP in a virtualbox intance even though >> it's >> old and no longer updated? >> >> I don't have media for XP but I do have the sticker on my computer; I >> believe >> that's the license. >> >> Anyone know how to get media I can use to create a virtual box instance? >> >> or where I should look? >> >> I'd really rather do this under linux. The alternative, buy a computer >> with >> Windows installed and use it as-is, is both more expensive and counter- >> productive. >> >> > Pretty easy solution. > > Since your laptop has an XP sticker, then make use of that. Install your > favorite linux distro on it, then install VirtualBox and make a XP virtual > machine, use that license on the sticker. XP is still updated via > Microsoft Updates, and you just have to keep it patched. Besides, > if you're gonna use it just for some simple management function, > there isn't much to worry about. When the machine is done and > configured, make a backup of the hard drive file and that'll be a > perfect backup. > > As for XP media, if your laptop didn't come with it, I'm sure the > manufacturer will be happy to provide you a copy for $15 or $20. > That is, in case you don't wanna bother with torrents and the like. > > HTH, > > -- > Dante > > _______________________________________________ > LinuxUsers mailing list > LinuxUsers@socallinux.org > http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers > >
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