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Thread ID: 138555 2014-12-16 22:01:00 5 OS's - One PC auckward (17306) Press F1
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1390343 2014-12-16 22:01:00 Hi all,

I've been tasked with having one machine to run 5 OS's (Win XP, win7 32/64bit and Win 8.1 32/64bit) which is for a testing environment (just your standard app testing against OS's filled of trash virus/malware etc.

Anyways the box i've been given only has a 500GB drive, I was thinking originally to partition it up 92GB each but then theres a limit on what the disk can be split to.

So I was thinking of an easier way, simply run a Linux distro and chuck Orcle's VM on there and run it that way, would make switching OS's much easier.

Anyone done this before and have any suggestions? So far i've looked into running Unbuntu with orcle's VM on it but havn't done a complete look into it all.
auckward (17306)
1390344 2014-12-16 22:12:00 VM's would be the way to go, on this Windows 7 PC I've got 3 VM's in Oracle ( about to add another when I get around to it) , theres no limit as to how many you can have AFAIK. You can even open more than one at a time as long as the computers got the power to do so.

The good thing about using VM's is once you install them for the first time, you simply copy the VM to another location, that way when any of them get toasted by testing you simply drop the copy back and start again.
wainuitech (129)
1390345 2014-12-16 22:46:00 VM's would be the way to go, on this Windows 7 PC I've got 3 VM's in Oracle ( about to add another when I get around to it) , theres no limit as to how many you can have AFAIK. You can even open more than one at a time as long as the computers got the power to do so.

The good thing about using VM's is once you install them for the first time, you simply copy the VM to another location, that way when any of them get toasted by testing you simply drop the copy back and start again.

Ever run them off Linux install over the Windows? I have no issues with both but thought Linux might be a bit lighter hardware wise to run the VM's better?
auckward (17306)
1390346 2014-12-16 23:17:00 Ever run them off Linux install over the Windows? I have no issues with both but thought Linux might be a bit lighter hardware wise to run the VM's better? No Sorry, but I do run Windows with Linux VM's. wainuitech (129)
1390347 2014-12-17 03:13:00 You could install Windows 8.1 64bit and use the free Hyper-V app that is built in and run your machines as a VM.

Note it needs to be Windows 8 Pro and your processor has to support VT (The same with most Virtual platforms)
Alex B (15479)
1390348 2014-12-17 19:52:00 Anyways the box i've been given only has a 500GB drive, I was thinking originally to partition it up 92GB each but then theres a limit on what the disk can be split to.

You can create a primary partition, an extended partition and then put any number of logical drives in the extended partition. That should work ok. Then you'd install the oldest OS first up to the newest.

VMs though, would be the way to go provided the rest of the PC has a decent CPU & enough memory.
autechre (266)
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