Neil Bothwick wrote: > On Sat, 3 May 2008 12:48:30 +0100, Mick wrote: > >> I have a box which has WinXP dual-booting with Gentoo. I would like to >> be able to have access to a clone of the existing WinXP installation, >> from within Gentoo. The original WinXP partition should be left well >> alone, as it is business critical. > > If you copy it to a VM, you are running it on different hardware. The MS > profit-protection system will kick in, requiring you to reactivate it for > the VM "hardware". > > This isn't to say it can't be done. On the contrary: you can clone the partition and boot it just fine, only you'll have (IIRC) three days to reactivate it before it goes inactive.
You say you'd like access to a clone from "within Gentoo" - is it sufficient to be able to mount the existing partition read-only? Do you really need the clone? -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list