Let the Sunshine In: Software support engineer in Tokyo

Finally, I joined the VirtualBox bandwagon. Installed it on Linux. Now, what guest do I run? I'm too lazy to install a new OS so I tried to load existing VMware Windows guest image(*.vmdk) .

Didn't work on the 1st try.   OK....   I searched internal resource and found Migrate_Windows - VirtualBox. It says there are 3 steps. Took step 1 and tried again.  It now dies miserable BSOD.

All right, I have to take step 2&3. So, I read the wiki page once again.  Hmm...  Correct me if I'm wrong. But..., It says one has to tweak the Windows driver & registry in the ORIGINAL system. In the case of VMware, it may be acceptable. But in case one creates VDI(VirtualBox native image format)  from physical Windows system, one have to change physical system first. This is not what people want to do. So I thought I would experiment other means to do the same. What is required here are 2 things.

1. Copy files to NTFS
   
2. Modify Windows registry
   

I tried NtPasswd first. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor .  This is a very small(3MB) bootable image specifically created for Windows repair. I have successfully used this for VMware twice in the past. But on VirtualBox, it didn't detect the HDD. I think this is because NtPasswd iso image doesn't have the driver. NtPasswd FAQ page says there is no support for 3rd party driver. So, I gave up on it.

Moving on... I googled and found this page.  Hack 75 Reset Lost NT Passwords .  I downloaded latest Knoppix iso file and booted with it. It detected the HDD. It didn't have 'Windows Registry Editor' called 'chntpw' installed. So, I followed the instruction and installed chntpw. I could mount NTFS fine and edited a registry value. I finished step#3 here. The only remaining step is #2. I wanted to see if it made any difference so I rebooted this VirtualBox vm. No change. It still dies BSOD.

Now, it looks like I have to really apply step#2. Let's see what kind of files are copied to NTFS.

$ unzip -p MergeIDE.zip MergeIDE.bat|grep -Ei 'expand|ctdir'
set ctdir=%1:\i386
set ctdir=%SystemRoot%\Driver Cache\i386
if exist "%ctdir%\driver.cab" goto isda
echo *** Datei %ctdir%\Driver.cab nicht gefunden ***
expand>NUL "%ctdir%\driver.cab" -f:Atapi.sys "%SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers"
expand>NUL "%ctdir%\driver.cab" -f:Intelide.sys "%SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers"
expand>NUL "%ctdir%\driver.cab" -f:Pciide.sys "%SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers"
expand>NUL "%ctdir%\driver.cab" -f:Pciidex.sys "%SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers"

So... I have to use 'chntpw' again. Since the Knoppix didn't have it, I seached for Linux Live CD that comes with it. The first one I found was 'BackTrack'(Security Xploded by Nagareshwar Talekar). 2nd one I found was Knoppix-STD. I downloaded the latter and booted the vbox vm with it. I could mount NTFS. It did have a Windows *.cab file extractor tool called 'cabextract' as well. And I confirmed 4 required driver files are right there in WINDOWS folder. Nice!  I think most Windows installation have these 4 files somewhere within C: drive.



Unlike what the name suggests, 'chntpw' is not just for changing password. It's a registry editor.
Here's me checking 'agp440' service that was mentioned in VirtualBox wiki.

<Start> value was '0'(BOOT_START) but I changed it to '4'(Diabled) using this tool.

So... it looks like it's doable.  i.e.) one doesn't boot into original system to make the vm work in VirtualBox.

The remaining part is mass registry update. Here, I found a 'expect' script which feeds input to 'chntpw'. Nice!
Remastering Knoppix as a Windows Rescue CD (aioscript) - Knoppix.net
Maybe I can convert Windows *.reg file to expect script.