VMware Player - installing Win XP headaches

[Darwock]

Having one problem after another with this. Due to the ***ness of Windows 7 being unable to run anything I need, I want to get a virtual machine set up running XP.

Initial problem was that I don't have an XP installation disc - I plan to use the product key on the rear of my broken XP machine, but was unable to get a disc to use it with. Only a Japanese version is compatible with the product key and Japanese versions can not be found on the internet.

I discovered that the bulk of the installation files were copied to the HDD by the manufacturer, so I DO have the i386 folder and the installation executables inside it.

This isn't bootable though, and anyway VMplayer only allows you to boot from CD or ISO. I downloaded an english copy of the installation disc and swapped out the i386 folder with mine (no idea if this will get around the product key problem or not) but when I make an ISO out of the new files it's still not bootable.

I downloaded the Win XP Home edition bootdisk files from Microsoft (planning to do... something... I don't know), but these come in a self-extracting CAB file which also doesn't work in Windows 7.

Looking for any advice on how to proceed and get the installer to boot within VMware Player.

Alternatively if anyone has a spare product code for an English copy of Windows XP home edition... yeah, thought not!

[smouty]

Having one problem after another with this. Due to the ***ness of Windows 7 being unable to run anything I need, I want to get a virtual machine set up running XP.

Depending which version of Win7 you have you may be able to download the WinXP VM for free.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx

[Darwock]

Unfortunately, I can't

Only got the basic home edition with my PC. I went to the download page and it checked my version and proceeded to let me download and install the required apps, but only after I tried to run them did it tell me I couldn't do it unless I upgraded to professional edition.

Costs 11,000 yen... if I can get VMware running it would be far preferable as that is a free app.

Not looking good right now though. I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to buy a 2nd hand XP install disc from somewhere for less than 11,000...

[EvilBoris]

Google it, there are a few ways to install it without the pro edition

[Darwock]

I assume that is referring to some kind of illegal way? I'll check that out as a last resort.

I have made a small amount of progress with the current plan. Took the CAB self extracting file to work and ran it on an XP machine there. It didn't work as there were no floppy drives on the machine, but I was able to grab the extracted image files out of the temp folder before the process ended and deleted them.

I could boot these in VMware Player (it does support floppy image files after all) and got to the point where it asked me to insert my CD. The SP3 ISO I had was not accepted, so I downloaded a Dutch SP2 CD and again swapped my i386 folder into it.

This ISO was accepted as the real CD and installation continued.

Now I'm at the point where it is asking which partition I want to install on. I have a 10GB space set up by VMware Player and I can select it, but it shows as having 0 bytes free space. When the setup program tries to format it I just get "Windows cannot format the system partition on this drive" (in Japanese).

Why the hell not..!

[Brad]

Just curious what apps Win7 can't run?

[Darwock]

It's mostly stuff related to my hobby where I design and print decals/stickers for model kits. The biggest issue is the MicroDry printer itself, the drivers are not compatible.

Anyway, I somehow have cracked the installation problems.

The stuff with the partition, I just redownloaded the virtual machine files for VMplayer and the next time I started it, the full 10GB was free space.

After that, during the install it started complaining about a lack of OEMBIOS.BIN files. A bit of research revealed that these are files Microsoft stuck in there to make sure your copy of Windows will not install on any other brand of computer. Wonderful.

Happily, I was able to find a set that match my manufacturer, and recreated the ISO file with them added to the i386 folder. Surprisingly that was enough, got to the product code entry and it now accepts my code from the broken machine. I've made it all the way to the desktop, so hopefully this is now case closed.

The only unusual thing is it keeps trying to install a hardware battery, so maybe I have some laptop files in there by mistake. In any case it looks like it is possible to patch together your own XP boot disc in this way. It shouldn't even be necessary of course, we paid for the goddamn software.

[Darwock]

Slowly realising that this case is not closed after all. Being an all Japanese copy of XP I missed out on the details, but I recall when I started it up it asked me to activate within 30 days.

Researching what this activation is today, and I find out in all likelihood it has rejected the authenticity of the installation, even with the valid product key. Possibly the virtual machine is not identifying itself correctly to the OEM checks.

I can dig in further with all those OEMBIOS files and try to determine what's wrong, or I can let it fail activation and then call Microsoft to beg for assistance. It seems to me I have a pretty good case for the activation, as my original PC malfunctioned and the replacement that I bought is not capable of the tasks it needs to do, yet both were running Microsoft products. No doubt they would just tell me to buy the upgrade though. There's also the problem that my Japanese is not up to the task, and I can't ask my fiancee to call on my behalf as she has a very low tolerance for anything involving computers.

The shadier methods look far more appealing at this stage.

[smouty]

OEM activation needs a area of the BIOS (SLIC) to contain a certificate which matches one on the OEM CD.
This is almost certainly not present in the VM BIOS.
Google for +VMware +BIOS +SLIC