running windows applications and making use of existing ms windows installation

[albi albinootje]

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

if i were you i would use vmware-server and do a fresh install,
easiest and safest