running windows applications and making use of existing ms windows installation

[Bill Moran]

In response to "mato" <gamato at users.sf.net>:

> On Tue, 28 Nov 2006 06:40:43 -0500, Bill Moran wrote
> > "mato" <gamato at users.sf.net> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 11:09:50 +0200, albi albinootje wrote
> > > > On 10/19/06, martinko <gamato at pobox.sk> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > > I've been reading for some time about VMWare, Wine, Qemu, Bochs and some
> > > > > others, but I'm still not sure which one would (best) fit my needs:
> > > > >
> > > > > I've got a dual boot and I would like to make use of existing Windows
> > > > > (XP) installation, not having to create a new virtual disk/system and
> > > > > install everything from scratch.
> > > > >
> > > > > Can I use existing Windows installation with some of the existing
> > > > > "emulation" software ??
> > > > 
> > > > you didn't mention whether you're using NTFS or not on the windows-
> > > > partition, if you do use NTFS then you already have a problem 
> > > > because you can't write to that partition by default (not sure how 
> > > > far the rw-development is on FreeBSD)
> > > > 
> > > > vmware server gives you the possibility to use "raw partitions",
> > > > i've tried that with a linux-partition on an external disc within vmware
> > > > 
> > > > wine is also a possibility, but wine will by default let you start
> > > > only 1 app, YMMV
> > > > 
> > > > last time i tried qemu it didn't support "raw partition" access afair
> > 
> > According to the docs, it does support "raw" partition images, which 
> > you should be able to create using dd.  I haven't tried this, though.
> 
> Do you think I could supply raw disk device directly to Qemu ??

It's not _designed_ to work that way, but given the fact that "everything
is a file" in Unix, it's entirely possible that it will work.

Definitely make a backup before trying.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.