Hi I have a current XP SP3 setup have been using in a dual boot with Windows 8.1(on separate partitions on different hard drives - I think these are SATA drives) but now am thinking of migrating my XP partition preferably as a live virtual machine to be run as a guest via Windows 8.1 as host so I don't have to do the rebooting. Also prefer this to making a VHD of my XP so can use the existing partition allocated for it rather than taking up extra space as VHD on my windows 8 (and don't want yet to replace my xp dual boot in case it does not work so well as vhd, as I have a lot of old educational programs my kids still use on it that I don't really want to put onto my W8.1). Will also save time if I don't have to convert it to VHD first. I also do not want to reinstall a new XP Sp3 virtual machine from scratch for same reason - will take too long to resetup -just use existing as is.
I have used VMWare player and Virtual Box in past with an old 98SE system as a virtual VHD/VPC file but VMWare workstation is paid which may be the one I need to use a physical partition but I prefer to try freeware options first.
Will Hyper-V in Windows 8.1 (I have retail PRO version of both my XP and Windows 8.1) be able to do the same as VMWare workstation? OR is there another option to run the physical XP?
The other thing with my XP setup is that the user profiles that people login with are located on a different partition E (80GB) to my XP which is on J (100GB) and most of the programs for it run from partition D (over 120GB) and the XP boot loader resides on a partition C (2GB) (which is not the Windows8.1 partition which becomes C only when it boots, but this C drive for XP may also be having the Windows 8 boot loader and files for that -using EasyBCD to handle boot menu of W7 type boot loader).
So I need a system that can mount these other physical partitions also alongside with my XP partition when it boots up.
So what are my options for running this XP SP3 setup via Windows 8 as a guest operating system?
Also will doing this be likely to require reactivation of my existing windows XP (retail) which means I cannot then use it again if I go back to the XP dual boot at times or in case the VM setup does not work?
Also do I need to change my XP first so that it boots off its own drive rather than the C partition - and how do I set this up then using EasyBCD or windows boot repair?