Migrating Windows XP from a dead system?

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verulian

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Feb 18, 2019
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I'm in a difficult situation where an old Windows XP system must be maintained indefinitely due to a critical application that cannot be replaced. Unfortunately the hosting computer (WinXP on metal) failed (bad motherboard) and I need to migrate the Windows XP installation to a virtual machine - preferably Proxmox.

What options exist to perform such a transplant from a dead machine to a VM guest?
 
Hey,

without testing it in detail I would suggest the following steps:

1. Remove the physical block device from the broken machine
2. Connect it to a working machine
3. Boot this machine from a Live-Linux
4. Do a dd-based raw copy of the block device to somewhere else (a second block device, a network share, ...)
5. Create a VM with suitable hardware resources, and with a vDisk which is larger than your original block device
6. For this vDisk choose "IDE" as "Bus/Driver" - maybe this increases the chance that WinXP will boot without further work
7. Boot this VM from a Live-Linux an dd the device copy from its current location to the vDisk of the VM
8. Try to boot the VM from its vDisk

Good luck and many greets
Stephan
 
Thanks so much for these rough steps! I've heard of something before regarding having to edit the registry or some other files for XP. Any thoughts in that regard?

I'll try to work through this and come back here with results. I have to guess the most important thing at this point is getting a good raw image of the system since the hard drive integrity is also questionable at this point as well.
 
verulian said:
I've heard of something before regarding having to edit the registry or some other files for XP. Any thoughts in that regard?
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I'm sorry, I don't remember something like this - XP is soo long ago... :-D

I have to guess the most important thing at this point is getting a good raw image of the system
Click to expand...
Yes, it is! And if storage capacity is no problem I would even do a second copy of this raw image as a backup.

I'll try to work through this and come back here with results.
Click to expand...
You're welcome! (Don't be too sad when your're first attempt booting the XP-VM ends up with a bluescreen - that would not be the end of the story). ;-)

Greets
Stephan
 
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