Prev: KRDC doesn't start
Next: SuSEconfig
From: David Bolt on 6 May 2008 18:40
On Tue, 6 May 2008, Darrell Stec wrote:-

>We are talking over each other. Apparently I do know what I am talking
>about and you don't.

Apparently, you're mixing up virtual machines and real machines.

>Take for instance my HP. When I bought it, WinXP was installed. There is a
>recover partition (newer Vista machines have 3 partitions: Vista -- C:,
>Data -- D:, and a recovery partition) but the computer comes with no
>Windows disks. With my machines and many others I've worked on recently
>you cannot fix a Windows OS using repair. The only option is to use the
>recovery proceedure on the recovery partition that formats the entire C
>drive and reinstalls the computer to its original pristine state.

I've met that sort of situation before. My laptop, and my wife's, came
supplied with that sort of "recovery" media and the first thing they
both required was the burning of a recovery DVD using the contents of
that recovery partition as a basis.

>Now if you have Linux and a virtual machine which I take it runs under
>Linux, how can you install the Windows OS as one of those running under VM?

It might be a problem, depending on whether that recovery system is
configured to only install on specific hardware.

>Remember, the recovery program reformats the hard drive and wipes out the
>Linux too.

Yes it does, but that still won't stop you from being able to utilize
it. All you need is to copy the recovery partition from the physical
hard drive onto an identical partition on the virtual hard drive. Then,
you can restart the virtual machine and use the copy on that to perform
the "recovery" of Windows on the virtual machines hard drive.

The only likely problem you'll have with this is when you discover the
"recovery" system will only work with that specific hardware, and falls
over because the virtual machine emulates something different. Network
cards are a good one for this, as are IDE controllers and emulated
graphics cards.

>And remember you already paid for Windows when you bought the machine. You
>don't get Windows disks. So if you are to run WinXP or Vista on that
>computer you need the disks so you are paying AGAIN for Windows. I don't
>know how to explain this any simpler than that. Perhaps you never worked
>with such a computer. I don't know. Or perhaps your computer does not
>wipe out the entire C: drive.

My wife's system was worse than that. The only recovery option available
was to completely wipe the entire drive, recreate the partitions and
then re-install. The end results were almost as if she'd gotten herself
a fresh machine. All her data that hadn't been backed up, which wasn't
actually a lot really, was lost and she had to reconfigure everything to
her liking again.

Luckily, since then, she's swapped over to Linux and is no longer using
Windows. She feels it's "too slow, too clumsy, and doesn't feel right"
despite having used Windows for years, and Linux for only five months.
In fact, it only took a month before she was complaining about it
auto-booting into Windows and asked me to change it to auto-boot Linux
:-)


Regards,
David Bolt

--
www.davjam.org/lifetype/ www.distributed.net: OGR(a)100Mnodes, RC5-72(a)15Mkeys
SUSE 10.1 32bit | openSUSE 10.2 32bit | openSUSE 10.3 32bit | openSUSE 11.0a1
SUSE 10.1 64bit | openSUSE 10.2 64bit | openSUSE 10.3 64bit
RISC OS 3.6 | TOS 4.02 | openSUSE 10.3 PPC |RISC OS 3.11
From: Darrell Stec on 6 May 2008 20:15
houghi wrote:

> Darrell Stec wrote:
>> I think commercial clients are stuck with purchasing another copy of
>> Windows.
>
> Most likely. And that is not an issue to discuss here.
>
> houghi

It is in the sense that if someone owns one of those machines (and more and
more of them are manufactured every day) and wants to run Linux with a
virtual machine, informing them that it may not be possible with their set
up should be something to be discussed.

Their only other options would be to use Wine Crossover or pay out extra
money for another copy of Windows.

I was just trying to be thorough and cover all the bases.

--
Later,
Darrell Stec darstec(a)neo.rr.com

Webpage Sorcery
http://webpagesorcery.com
We Put the Magic in Your Webpages
From: Will Honea on 6 May 2008 15:33
Vahis wrote:

> On 2008-05-06, Will Honea <whonea(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Vahis wrote:
>>
>>> Virtual machine gives a disk image to the guest OS who takes it as a
>>> disk. It also provides it with the rest of the virtual hardware.
>>> The guest won't touch the rest of the disk. It does not even know
>>> there's life outside this virtual machine.
>>
>> For my edification, is it a safe assumption that a restore operation
>> would be equally isolated?
>
> I've had no issues, ever.
>> I have seen both types - the one that only messed
>> with the logical partitions as defined, the other that wanted to
>> re-format the whole bloody physical disk.
>
> I don't follow.
> Virtual disk image is not a logical partition.
>> The exception to the latter case was that
>> every one I tried would leave the hidden partition alone and use that to
>> re-install if necessary but I'm a pessimist and really don't want to
>> chance losing the other partitions so I'd appreciate input from someone
>> that has actually tried the re-install from some of those hard drive
>> resident "sources".
>
> I don't follow. Virtual machines are just files, where ever you put
> them. What hidden partitions?

Dang, I must have been really tired when I wrote that! The question I have
boils down to whether those "recovery" sets try to get down to BIOS level
disk detection or if they will live with the virtual mapping. Guess I'll
just have to swap in a spare drive and see what happens.

--
Will Honea
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **
 | 
Pages: 1
Prev: KRDC doesn't start
Next: SuSEconfig