Is it possible to have a partition/HD that can be either dual booted OR virtualized?

[BD2003]

What I'd really like to be able to do on my system is have a XP/Vista install that I can either virtualize within OS X or fully boot into (for full performance gaming.), without having to manage a separate virtual install and real install.

Can this be done with a single install, or does the virtual windows have to be separate from the "real" windows?

 

[ViRGE]

AFAIK, it needs to be separate right now. The virtualized hardware is completely different from any modern real hardware you may be using.

 

[Smilin]

Never really heard of that but it *might* be possible.

So you would have to load the mass storage driver from the virtual hardware and not disable the driver for the real storage controller. You would then within Virtual PC use a physical disk as a virtual disk (Virtual Server does this at least. I think VPC does too).

All of this is going to put you at a serious risk of getting a Stop 0x000007B at boot and will likely give you some pretty frankenstein behavior from your drivers and hardware as you are essentially popping a hard drive in and out of two completely different PCs.

What you really want is to have your cake and eat it too. Face it - You bought OS X. The only game you're really going to be able to play is Catch the Monkey Banner Ad.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
AFAIK, it needs to be separate right now. The virtualized hardware is completely different from any modern real hardware you may be using.

I suppose that does make perfect sense, didnt realize the hardware would be different.

Would there be a reasonably easy way to image a windows install (with programs installed etc), and clone it from one to the other and have it redetect the appropriate hardware? I know just changing a motherboard/drive controller can easily prevent an install from booting, so I'm wondering if theres a way to have it redetect.

Although I suppose microsoft will consider this two separate installs, and thus require two separate keys?

 

[ViRGE]

I take back what I said. Apparently VMWare Fusion can use Bootcamp partitions as virtual machines without screwing stuff up. So if you're on a Mac (and not a Hack) then you can get away with this.

 

[Nothinman]

Windows had hardware profiles back in the NT4 days, was that removed at some point?

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
I take back what I said. Apparently VMWare Fusion can use Bootcamp partitions as virtual machines without screwing stuff up. So if you're on a Mac (and not a Hack) then you can get away with this.

Yes, it works. It is slower than a pure VM though, in my experience. I was doing this for a while with my MacBook, then realized I really didn't use OSX for anything except 1 h.323 application that talked to my Polycoms with minimal configuration. Blew away both partitions and just installed Vista. Much happier.