Virtual Box & Windows -
Bob Goodwin
bobgoodwin at wildblue.net
Tue Mar 22 17:04:10 UTC 2011
On 22/03/11 12:18, compdoc wrote:
>> Windows is very fussy about the hardware. If the hardware changes from
>> when it was originally installed, it refuses to run. This is
>> (supposedly) to prevent unauthorized copies. So it is unlikely you will
>> be able to get the copy on disk to run.
>
> It's true that when you make major changes to the hardware, Windows often
> won't be able to see the boot device. But this is not a refusal to run, and
> it isn't a form of copy protection. It's simply a matter of not having the
> proper drivers for the new hardware.
>
> There are several ways around the problem - one is to run Sysprep, which
> makes all drivers known to the OS available for use on the next boot with
> the option of adding drivers during the boot.
>
> Another is to run windows from a drive controller that can be installed in
> the new system, so that Windows finds itself booting from the same hardware
> it always has. Sometimes this works great, sometimes not.
>
> It's not impossible to move Windows to new hardware, and it's not even that
> hard to do. However, you might end up having to call Microsoft after the
> move to get it activated. That's the copy protection part. They ask you a
> couple of questions and you get the new code. And they're usually pretty
> nice about it.
>
>
>
These are used computers purchased from Discount PC who sells
them with Windows XP Pro installed, however there is no cdrom
provided, no means for reinstall. Usually that's not a problem
since I don't need Windows anyway.
But if I do a new install from the Fedora DVD it will install
Fedora on an added drive and configure grub so I can select
whatever, including Windows and all is happiness. My problem is
that the only way I can get Windows to run is to plug it into
the first slot, then Windows boots but I never see grub.
Or I can move the original drive to a third slot, it shows up as
/dev/sdc0 and grub will select it but then Windows refuses to
boot, yields an error screen and the computer has to be powered
off to reboot.
Now it looks to me that by moving the Windows drive to the slot
it wants I can do a reinstall of F14 and produce a working
system with grub selecting Fedora or Windows.
Is there a procedure using the DVD to reorganize things without
destroying the existing Linux configuration?
Bob
More information about the users
mailing list