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I feel a bit sheepish asking, but I cannot for the life of me find the files I've installed using XP Mode. When I'm in XP Mode they are right in front of me. When I go back to Windows 7 I cannot find them, and I think I should be able to.
Has anyone been through this and figured it out?
I'll bet they're right in front of me and I'm being slow.
Google was no help (or I Googled the wrong thing).
I don't use XP Mode, but I'm guessing it creates one giant file that is used to contain the entire file system visible to the virtual machine (that's what just about every other virtualization product does). There may be a utility to "mount" the file system image and make it visible as a drive letter to your Windows 7 machine. Kind of the same idea as the image files that Norton Ghost creates. Look for files > 2GB in size.
Found this:
Last edited by MediocreButArrogant; 02-04-2010 at 03:28 PM..
Reason: Added image
I don't use XP Mode, but I'm guessing it creates one giant file that is used to contain the entire file system visible to the virtual machine (that's what just about every other virtualization product does). There may be a utility to "mount" the file system image and make it visible as a drive letter to your Windows 7 machine. Kind of the same idea as the image files that Norton Ghost creates. Look for files > 2GB in size.
Found this:
Yes, the VHD file is the virtual hard drive. MS Virtual PC and Server 08's Hyper-V have been using these for a while now. Windows 7 native disk management utility can mount these as drive letters.
My concern is backing up data stored in it. I'm going to try to convince the old programs to store the data on Win 7 and install on XP Mode. One already balked about using a network drive for installing. Perhaps it has the option of changing the default location of the data files.
I have versions of the same tax program from 1995 through 2009 that have to be on a Windows 7 PC. Pain in the butt. You wouldn't believe some of the hoops I'm having to jump through to get these installed.
Yes, the VHD file is the virtual hard drive. MS Virtual PC and Server 08's Hyper-V have been using these for a while now. Windows 7 native disk management utility can mount these as drive letters.
That sounds interesting. If I do so will the data be seen directly from Win7?
That sounds interesting. If I do so will the data be seen directly from Win7?
Yep, just like mounting a USB drive. Of course, XP Mode can't be running while Win7 mounts the VHD file. You have your choice of mounting it read-only or read/write. As far as backup, the beauty of virtualization is that you can just snag a copy of the entire VHD file and there's a complete image backup in case something goes badly inside the virtual machine.
My concern is backing up data stored in it. I'm going to try to convince the old programs to store the data on Win 7 and install on XP Mode. One already balked about using a network drive for installing. Perhaps it has the option of changing the default location of the data files.
I have versions of the same tax program from 1995 through 2009 that have to be on a Windows 7 PC. Pain in the butt. You wouldn't believe some of the hoops I'm having to jump through to get these installed.
VMWare Workstation claims to be able to take a running Windows system on a network and create a virtual machine clone of it. I've never tried this feature, but if it works, it would save you the trouble of reinstalling all of your programs under Virtual PC. I imagine the way it works is to completely clone the system, and then make the necessary config changes required so it will boot and run on the virtual machine. I'm sure you will need to reactivate the cloned OS running in the virtual machine, so it's best if you have a volume license and your own activation server or a MSDN subscription.
I didn't bother with this because I was able to boot my old XP system on my new Core i7 hardware (old system was C2D E6600 on P965 motherboard, new system was Core i7 920 on X58 motherboard). I actually did this by accident, but since the HALs matched (both used multiprocessor ACPI HAL), it booted, and just identified all the hardware on the first boot. All I had to do was add missing drivers and it's been running fine since. I know everyone says you should at least do a repair install at minimum, and preferably a fresh install, but it worked for me, and I saved myself many hours. I still have the old system, and re-activating the old OS on the new hardware is no problem because I have a MSDN subscription. It does have the disadvantage that I have to boot one or the other - maybe I'll try the VMWare cloning operation in the future.
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