Turning a Dead XP PC into a Virtual Machine

[@litewavve]

I came across this video by asking Perplexity how I could run my old PC system as a virtual machine on my new PC. Thank you, thank you. I have not done it yet and don't know what problem I may encounter. But this is a fantastic start.

[@akiraperera9574]

Probably one of the best tutorials on youtube by far. I'm trying to boot up my windows xp pc from 2002-2011 that hasn't been booted up in years! Will update :0

[@akiraperera9574]

So, it didn't really work. I entered the vm and I ended up with an error. (My backup is dual booted with windows xp and ubuntu) I can't get into the gnu grub bootloader? Any ideas? Thanks.

[@technotard13]

​@@akiraperera9574 Sorry for the late reply. I never have enough time in the week to get to comments. So the PC you were trying to recover dual booted both linux and Windows on the same drive, right? I haven't tried that on a system since college. Last time I did that, by default it would boot into linux unless I selected Windows in the startup menu after POSTing. I doubt this would work but during the creation of the VMX file, try setting the guest operating system for Linux instead of Windows. Worth a try. Another option I would give to try out is creating the VMDK image differently to see if that changes things. There's an alternate way to create the VMDK image by just using Starwind v2v Converter without Disk2VHD. I've never had success with physical disks to image files with Starwind, so I didn't include it in the video. -After connecting the drive, open Starwind and select the P2V option in the beginning. -I would choose the physical disk option next but I would experiment with Disk Volume as well if the physical disk option didn't work. -After selecting the disk, the steps should be the same as I included in the video for Starwind. Hope that helps you with reviving your system.

[@akiraperera9574]

@@technotard13 Hello, thanks for the long detailed response. So, I tried each of the suggestions and the outcome was the exact same for both. One thing to note, when I backup up the winxp/ubuntu drive using macrium, I was able to boot it up on their viboot using hyper-v. This time the grub menu popped up. However when I tried to load either I get the same ubuntu error and with the newly accessible windows xp I get a blue screen. Aghh lol. Any ideas? I'm not sure what to do now. I was thinking of trying to run a winxp iso to repair it but I'm not sure how to do that since the backup is dual booted. Thanks.

[@nohandle4u2see]

I'm late to this but...in a similar situation I had an old PC that wouldn't post. I found that several caps on the board swelled/leaked. My plan was to replace them but I wanted the OS up and booted to explore and recover anything useful. What I did was leave the board/PC powered up for several days. Eventually things got warmed up enough to get a weird beep, then later on it did boot up. This may or may not work in your situation. I didn't have to deal with bootloaders. Mine booted different versions of XP dictated by the bios depending on which drive I told it to boot from. Best of luck on recovery.

[@jamall3131]

The algorithm for XP activation showed up online around 2021 which obviates the need to call Microsoft. It's a small execute file that accepts the code provided by XP during the activation process. It outputs an activation code, the one Microsoft would have given by phone or via its servers that ended in 2014. This execute file does the same as what an activation web link given to the customer by Microsoft by phone does.

[@Harcix]

For below W8 host systems youll need VMWARE 15 .

[@BrianHuether]

Hi, I can boot my XP machine but would still like to migrate it to my new computer as VM. In that case would I have to clone the original drive? thanks!

[@chatsifieds]

good tips

[@Sabs761010]

@Steve Kofskie Can I use vhdx and open it directly in Hyper V? to have fewer steps for physical HD to become virtual HD?

[@john2knj]

I tried the exact steps with a Win7 64bit hdd. Didn't work. When it comes time to boot I get a blank screen with "Missing operating system" at the top left. However, that hdd I pulled from a laptop and it was working/booting fine on the laptop. Not sure what step I'm missing or maybe if Win7 requires something in addition to the steps listed here.

[@killswitchengaged5]

So I have an issue. I have an old Windows XP IDE drive of my dad's that I want to use in Windows 10. Im using a IDE to usb device connected to my host PC which is windows 10. But when I run Disk2VHD on that partitioned drive I get an error saying I/O input. The other partitioned drive of the recovery works. I tried chkdsk for any bad sectors and still wont help. I also have Virtualization enabled in my bios. Not sure whats going on

[@kydox3262]

I'm curious if this would work for my 2 drive (SSD and HHD) setup. My 11 year old HP laptop (running Win7) finally died today (CPU fan quit). Several years back I added a large 2nd hard drive and replaced the original with a SSD, moving the rescue partition as well as all the user folders to the 2nd drive. I figure I could get the first drive running, but as soon as you would get to the desktop, I image windows would moan about not finding the user folder.

[@SuperNoticer]

Worked great! Thanks for the tutorial. The only problem I'm having is installing VMware tools. I keep getting an error saying the Microsoft Runtime DLL Installer failed to complete installation

[@TavaresD]

Thanks! it helped a lot 😁😁

[@cpcnw]

You can use .vhd directly with VirtualBox so no need for conversion.

[@kylergeston]

This is good to know. I was wondering if anything else supported VHD natively without having to do a conversion.

[@vla2uv]

I wouldn't recommend turning a HDD or SSD, into a virtual disk, since the space that is taking the image of the physical drive is usually taking a significant amount of space to save it and, besides that the virtual drive will need a lot of resources to run and so you'll need to have the hosting physical PC endowed with plenty of RAM, a multi core CPU, and a powerful GPU! Just because it's possible it doesn't mean it's worth it! You've been warned!

[@someuser4166]

You are correct however old pcs like these have such small hard drives that it isn't really an issue. Same goes for ram and cpu cores. Modern computers are so powerful compared to xp era machines that it isn't really a problem.

[@KeijiHereMan]

Some not-very-nice waé you can consider for the activation are AntiWAT and AntiWPA. Either of those should work, but your windows will not be genuine.

[@mintecurioasa]

No. Not working. Tried for 2 days. Blue screen.

[@ZealousZavos]

Can't download starwind, as I cant find the link.

[@Thomas-pq4ys]

You lost me, in seconds. I've a XP computer that was stored. Now, like yours, it wont boot, even though it did, worked fine when I put it away. Now, I want to use the programs on that computer. The repair service I went to said I'm sceewed. All he could do was retrieve the data files, no programs. I'm bummed. Where do I go? I want this old conputer to work again.

[@breadman3068]

necromancy