Converting an existing C:\ drive installation of Windows XP to a virtual drive that can be run under a Linux installed on the same computer or ported to run on another computer.

The aim of this project was to preserve the useful set of applications that were currently running under Windows XP and could not be ported to run under Linux.

This included, specifically, Lotus Smart Suite with its desktop Personal Information Manager, Lotus Word Pro and Microsoft Word word processors and other less significant applications.

The need to make this transition came as Microsoft withdrew support for Windows XP in April 2014 when it became obvious that continuing to use the computer to access the Internet would be fraught with danger.

There are free tools that can convert the C:\ drive installation to a virtual drive, but before beginning this conversion process there was the need to get rid of as much data off the C:\ drive as possible to keep the virtual drive down to a minimum. To start with the C:\ drive contained over 42 GB of data. This eventually was reduced to 7.5 GB at which time I considered that I had done enough and left the remaining junk to remove after the conversion, if I chose.

Firstly, I moved all remaining personal data that could be moved to the D:\ drive which already held most of this data. Items that still had to be moved included My Documents, My Music, My Pictures and My Videos. These will be linked to the D:\ drive even after the disk is virtualised.

Then I removed all unnecessary applications, cleaned up all temporary files and removed all the Microsoft Security Update backup files, which were numerous and amounted to hundreds of MB. I did not remove those that resulted from updates to Microsoft Word or other Microsoft applications, leaving them until after the conversion process when the risks will be greatly reduced if I break something.

I made one fundamental mistake before starting the conversion process by installing the Linux that I am going to use and installing GRUB into the MBR as the boot-loader, rather than having the Microsoft boot loader and only one OS to boot. This had the unfortunate effect of making the first virtual drive unbootable without going to extreme lengths to change it. In the end I simply reverted to the Microsoft boot-loader and redid the conversion.