About your Win7 VBox install - You should not need win installation disks from Lenovo - just create Win 7 restore disk from Control Panel and use that to restore Win 7 in VBox VM. If that fails they are downloadable from MS - in this case you will need Win 7 licence sticker with the activation code.
In terms of your SSD, if I would be building this machine, I would consider couple of SSD scenarios: 1. Get mSata SSD and use it as boot disk, swap and for the VMs instead of the HDD. Everything else would stay the same - hdd and the optical drive. mSata drives cost about the same as SATA SSDs these days. 2. Replace the hdd with SSD and use it as boot disk, swap and for the VMs instead of the HDD. This would leave the hdd out, thus saving money instead of purchasing the optical drive hdd enclosure which could cost more than SSD. Storing bulk data on a network drive instead of in a laptop has many advantages. 3. Replace the hdd with SSD and use it as boot disk, swap and for the VMs instead of the HDD. Reuse the hdd as home dir in the optical bay. I take it that SSD would be /dev/sda and hdd /dev/sdb. OS and VMs perform much better on SSDs, especially when you run more than one. It all depends what is the best compromise for you. All the best, Tomas On Fri, 2016-05-13 at 22:22 -0700, Denis Heidtmann wrote: > On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 2:55 PM, Tomas Kuchta <tomas.kuchta.li...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > Yes, you can clone drive or partition and access it successfully that way > > from VBox. That is pretty routine. > > > > I would not expect it to boot Windows from the image though. > > > > Most likely, you are heading for fresh windows install or Windows recovery > > in > > VBox. > > > > If you really want to preserve your Win installations, my advice would be > > to > > create proper recovery media from windows and verify that they work as > > intended in VBox before you start reconfiguring your machine. If that does > > not > > work, prepare for fresh Win install in VBox. > > > > Just make sure that you do not ever start the recovered VBox instance > > together > > with another running installation of the same Windows instance - you could > > end > > up having them both disabled by their anti-piracy features. > > > > I would recommend destroying the original installation after you have > > working > > VBox instance and all the data + backup. VBox instances are easy to backup > > - I > > export them as appliance (which is self-contained image) from time to time > > - > > you get one compact file which is easy to archive and restore. That is the > > best > > beauty of VMs - they are independent of slowly dying HW. > > > > Tomas > > > > To clarify: This is a new machine to me. It has a fresh install of Win 7 > on it. Nothing more; nothing of mine. I hope to get the Win 7 install > disk(s) from Lenovo for use in creating a VB instance of it. And I have a > VB installation of Win 2K on my desktop (ubuntu 14.04) which I plan to > duplicate in the laptop when I understand the ins and outs (I am a > novice). One crucial question relates to the 128G SSD and the 320G > HD--what roles should each of the drives play in the new system? My > understanding is that the drive in the optical drive bay does not have the > same status as a second drive in a typical desktop installation. > > I am ready for education. > > -Denis > > > > > On Thu, 2016-05-12 at 22:52 -0700, Nat Taylor wrote: > > > To rip the win 7 image: > > > > > http://superuser.com/questions/614400/how-can-i-clone-a-hard-drive-directl > > y- > > > to-a-vdi-image > > > On May 12, 2016 9:46 PM, "Denis Heidtmann" <denis.heidtm...@gmail.com> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 7:37 PM, Denis Heidtmann < > > > > denis.heidtm...@gmail.com> > > > > wrote: > > > > > > > > > On the same morning that the 76 was shipped back, I went to > > EcoBinary at > > > > > Keith's suggestion. Great idea. I now have a new-looking Lenovo > > L420 > > > > > ($180). > > > > > > > > > > I want some advice on setting it up. It has a 320G HD; 4G ram. I > > have > > > > > a > > > > > 128G SSD. I want to switch from current Windows 7 Pro to Ubuntu, > > > > > but > > > > > put > > > > > the W7 into VBox, along with my present Windows 2000. I will run a > > > > couple > > > > > of older programs in the W2K and a couple of newer programs in the > > W7. > > > > > Most work will be done in Ubuntu; the performance of the virtual > > > > > machines > > > > > is not very important. How might I best configure this? > > > > > > > > > > The max. ram this will take is 8G. The seller said he thought > > currently > > > > > the 4G is in one stick. Assuming that is correct, is it ok to add a > > 2nd > > > > 4G > > > > > stick, or should they both be of the same vintage? > > > > > > > > > > I was able to find a Hardware Maintenance Manual, so with some study > > I > > > > may > > > > > be able to answer the last of these questions myself. > > > > > > > > > > Thanks for the advice.. > > > > > > > > > > -Denis > > > > > > > > > > > > > On-line research leads me to believe that the L420 can have a 2nd HD > > > > by > > > > replacing the optical drive with a HD in a carrier. It is unclear to > > me > > > > how this drive will be seen by the system: can it be configured to > > mount > > > > automatically? Can VB use it for its big files? If yes, then it just > > a > > > > matter of learning how to set it up. If not, then perhaps I should > > > > opt > > > > for > > > > a single larger SSD drive. > > > > > > > > -Denis > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > PLUG mailing list > > > > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org > > > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > PLUG mailing list > > > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org > > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > _______________________________________________ > > PLUG mailing list > > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org > > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > > > _______________________________________________ > PLUG mailing list > PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org > http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug _______________________________________________ PLUG mailing list PLUG@lists.pdxlinux.org http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
