XP Activation and VMware Convertor

[_ise_]

I'm getting pretty frustrated with Windows XP activation, it's a total nightmare.

I made a Boot Camp partition and installed XP in it, I had some fun with activation and ended up after to call Microsoft up to get re-activated.

Now I find that I don't use Boot Camp as Fusion is perfectly OK for me on it's own. I ran VMware converter from Fusion and tried to start that new VM but it failed to activate. Is that normal? I'd expected this wasn't a significant change from the XP point of view.

Is there a better way to run the convertor or another way to do what I want? ie loose the Bootcamp partition

[Andreas_Masur]

I ran VMware converter from Fusion and tried to start that new VM

but it failed to activate. Is that normal?

Well....what does 'failed' mean? Did you try to do the internet activation? By phone? Did you get any error message?

In terms of activation there is definitely some changes involved since you run in a virtualized hardware. Combine these hardware changes and Windows think it runs on a different platform. However, this should not be the reason for a failure of the activation process necessarily...

Ciao, Andreas

[_ise_]

The activation was the normal default over the internet, the error said the copy of XP had been activated too many times. I'd had this before and had to call them, I'm concerned I'm out of lives and can't activate this any more.

I actually have another copy of XP I may virtualize and use.

[admin]

You can use Converter to move your Boot Camp partition to a virtual machine, but there is one wrinkle: you can't write the newly built virtual machine directly onto your Mac hard drive. After all, when your Mac is booted into Windows XP, it's a Windows box, with no ability to write into Mac file systems.

If you have an external USB hard disk with free space, connect it to your Mac and use it as a destination for the newly written virtual machine.

Many USB disks are formatted as FAT file systems, so make sure that you choose the "Split into 2 GB pieces" option for the new virtual disk if so. (It's always safe to choose this option.)

After the conversion completes, you can boot your Mac back into Mac OS and move the virtual machine onto your Mac file system. Be sure to move the whole thing; don't miss any files.

When you boot up the virtual machine, you will indeed be asked to activate Windows once again. A virtual machine's hardware is different from the physical hardware.

[_ise_]

You can use Converter to move your Boot Camp

partition to a virtual machine, but there is one

wrinkle: you can't write the newly built virtual

machine directly onto your Mac hard drive. After

all, when your Mac is booted into Windows XP, it's a

Windows box, with no ability to write into Mac file

systems.

If you have an external USB hard disk with free

space, connect it to your Mac and use it as a

destination for the newly written virtual machine.

As I said, I ran converter from Fusion and wrote to a shared folder. I did not run it from Boot Camp.

[Pat_Lee]

The activation was the normal default over the

internet, the error said the copy of XP had been

activated too many times. I'd had this before and had

to call them, I'm concerned I'm out of lives and

can't activate this any more.

I actually have another copy of XP I may virtualize

and use.

This is not an issue with VMware Converter, but unfortunately a Windows feature. I have used Converter successfully without this error, so it looks like your copy may have been activated a few more times than MSFT would like. Please call them and they will likely do it over the phone, that works fine for some people who get this error in Windows.

Pat

[Andreas_Masur]

The activation was the normal default over the

internet, the error said the copy of XP had been

activated too many times. I'd had this before and had

to call them, I'm concerned I'm out of lives and

can't activate this any more.

That is what I have assumed...yes...in this case, you would need to call them again and have them correct that as indicated already by Brian and Pat. However, just a piece of advice...I would not necessarily mention that you run the same license in Boot Camp and in a VM. Although this is still a gray zone in the EULA in my eyes, I usually try to let the dogs sleep...

I actually have another copy of XP I may virtualize

and use.

Which is better for several reasons...

Ciao, Andreas