Virtual Machine of Windows on Windows

[ThinkPad560X]

I have a good PC now for my games ONLY PC. It is low but still good enough for me, plan to upgrade the machine as I go and don't get a lot of money really. So it has a Intel Core i3 3.30GHz Processor, 8GB stick of RAM "Plan to max to 32GB" CD/RW/DVD-ROM Drive SATA, Plan to get a Blu-Ray later, 120GB SSD running Windows 8.1 Pro. 3TB or 5TB HDD for the games install, Nvidia GeForce 650 Ti Graphics Card. Now for my older games. C&C/C&C Red Alert / Sim City/2000/3000, Diablo I /II, Elder Scrolls collection Morrowind and below and games from that 2003 and older time will not run on Windows 8.1 and later the Windows 10 coming soon. So I either decided to run the older games on my IBM Pentium III or 4 PC or use what is called Virtual Machine "Virtual Box" what I downloaded. I rather keep all the games on 1 PC then 2 PCs. So on the Virtual Machine will I need another Hard Drive to install the guest OS on like Windows 98-2000? I have 95,98,ME,2000 all on small 16GB SSD drives and could I just plug them in to run on the Virtual Machine?

[theterminator93]

Virtual machines use a "virtual hard disk" which is just a file on your existing hard drive that is basically an image file of the hard disk the virtual machine accesses. You can save them wherever you like. When you create the VM definition file you can also specify a physical disk with an existing OS install for the VM hard disk, but it may or may not transfer cleanly due to the VM using its own set of "virtual" hardware and drivers.

I've tried similar virtualization for the exact same reasons you specify but never got very far. It's been a little while since I tried but I seem to recall the VM host video card and sound card drivers didn't play nice. The only real reason I keep my older computers is so I have a platform from which to run the legacy titles, so I didn't spend a whole lot of time trying to get VM gaming to work.

[MisterB]

You can just turn your SSDs into VHDs with this free program:

http://www.mostiwant.com/blog/paragon-v ... erial-key/

No activation issues with these old systems. If you want to virtualize an existing XP install, activation can complicate things. I used the XP COA number on the T60 I was doing it on and it worked.

Virtual machines will be slower than the real thing but you should get something comparable to a PIII with an i3. The Paragon Virtualization Manager will create a VHD with the basic drivers needed for Virtualbox, Virtual PC or VMware.

[85101]

SimCity 3000 works fine on Windows 8.1. I don't know about the others.