Thinkpads Forum

Is it possible to use the Restore Discs or restore partition to install Windows into a virtual machine? I'm looking to do this on my T500 instead of dual booting. I've tried Qemulator, but it just freezes before making it to the install, VMWare Player reboots instead of freezing, and VirtualBox I just can't get to work at all (granted, I haven't put much effort into VBox.).

Or, am I forced to use a standard Vista/7 disc? Other ways?

The T500 has only 2gb of RAM. Is it realistic to run a VM with this little RAM?

Thanks in advance!

dunno about installing the software, but 2Gig of ram is probably gonna kill performance.
Get some more memory...

I've created a standard Windows XP install disk from the recovery files that are written into the i386 directory. You can then use this disk to install a clean copy Windows (without Thinkpad drivers etc) into a virtual nachine.

The problem comes with registration - the copy of Windows is tied to thinkpad hardware which your virtual machine cannot see, so the registration nagging starts after a few days, and of course, M$ will not give you a new key for an OEM version.

Assuming US legislation, I think it is legal to install the OEM version in a virtual machine provided that you never used it without virtualization on the computer. The OEM rules just dongle the license to one specific machine, so you are not allowed to transfer it (not even between bare metal and a virtual machine).

Being able to actually install it in the virtual machine is another matter. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the old i386 folder->install disk trick works for Win7. And you cannot install the rescue cd/dvds in a virtual machine, as they check for a thinkpad bios amongst other things. If you happen to have some Win7 install disk then you can install it from there and then call MS for activation. Online activation will not work, but since you have a valid (and previously unused) COA on the sticker at the bottom you can activate it via phone support. That is basically the same procedure than what you would follow to switch between 32bit and 64bit Windows versions, which is also legal.

Have never been able to install Windows into VirtualBox with the restore cd set, but thought (and haven't tried yet) to create an image of a Windows installation and then use it in the virtual machine. Possible tools: CloneZilla or Acronis Image.

As for RAM, I only have experience with VirtualBox, but 512mb for the Virtual Machine is enough for most everyday things. Even Photoshop runs reasonably well with that since, better than it does for me in a Windows machine with more RAM.