VirtualBox Ubuntu host with existing Vista

[darose-prQxUZoa2zOsTnJN9+BGXg at public.gmane.org (David Rosenstrauch)]

On Mon, June 1, 2009 11:11 pm, Greg Rundlett (freephile) wrote:
> I'm new to virtualization, and want to find a solution to run my
> existing (from the factory) installation of Windows Vista as a guest
> in my Ubuntu host.  I have Ubuntu installed.
>
> I basically want to run Ubuntu (Jaunty Jackalope) as the VirtualBox
> host, and be able to seamlessly run Windows Vista as a guest -- using
> the pre-installed OS.  I have the install media, but I don't want to
> go through the bother to re-install and re-partition if not necessary.
>
> It looks like VirtualBox is a good solution for free and open source
> virtualization.  It also looks like it supports using what they call
> 'raw access' to the existing disk.
> http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserManual.html#rawdisk  It seems
> like one important part is to setup a second hardware profile (in
> Vista), however it also seems that hardware profiles are only
> supported in XP, not Vista.  I'm wondering if anyone has had success
> doing this, and has any pointers to offer.  I've seen threads like
> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=984437&highlight=vista+virtualbox&page=6
> and language like "Remove anything not necessary, some trial and error
> may be required if you are not sure what you need" makes me leary to
> try it.

I've been trying to get my XP partition to boot using VirtualBox raw disk
for some time now (as well as natively from the partition).  Although it
"works" and I'm able to boot the OS, the problem is Windows Activation
(WPA).  Any time I boot the Win guest it tells me I need to re-activate
Windows, but it never works no matter my using the right activation code. 
(Apparently there's some issue where activation works differently on OEM
versions of Windows.)  Never been able to work around it.  If you figure
it out, please let me know!

DR