Installing Windows in VirtualBox
I had to install Windows for someone who needed Office (for a specific thing). So I installed VirtualBox on his Karmic PC and created a VM.
When the Hard Disk dialog came up, I choose 3 GB thinking it's only Windows + Office without data... Boy was I wrong.
After installing Windows XP and Office 2003, a dialog popped up saying that I had less than 60 MB left! I was shocked that I needed so much space for nearly no software (let alone data)...
I'm now hugging my Ubuntu machine, greatfull that it can fit more than just minesweeper on the odd gigabyte.
Not using windows for months on end actually makes me forget just how bad it really is...
Comments
11 comments postedWindows is 8 years old, if you want to compare use Windows 7.... otherwise i is ridiculous.
Windows 7 is even bigger, my exact point is that this ancient OS should not take 4 GB to to what an Ubuntu LiveCD can do (and more) on 640 MB.
The minimum requirements for Ubuntu 9.10 is 4GB disk space, so maybe 3GB for Windows XP was a little silly don't you think.
If you compare, do not forget swap on Linux. Per default it is the amount of RAM you'd need as extra disk space.
To get Windows smaller, you may as well get rid of hiberfile.sys, and limit pagefile.sys to 256MB.
I disagree
First off, WinXP is from 2002, it's 7 years old from a time when hard drives were a lot smaller. If you want to compare footprints, you need to take a distro from that age.
Secondly, Ubuntu comes with OpenOffice and hundreds of other programs (The Gimp, Brassero, ...) while this setup is only Windows with MS Office.
And lastly, 4 GB is absolutely wrong. Create a live USB stick from the Ubuntu ISO and you will see it only takes 1.2 GB of diskspace for the OS and apps, the rest is for data...
I used to really get frustrated by this to. Now I don't anymore. 1tb disk is only about 60 euro. You could also try to tweak your install cd by using nlite.
With XP, I always create VM with 20GB, dynamic. This way it won't eat all my HD. I think 6 or 7 GB is really the minimum. Don't forget that all the Windows Update will slowly eat more and more MB. On servers, we are having some problems with Windows Server 2003 filling a 12GB partition with no many softwares installed. And it's hard to keep it down.
Probably you forget the space for pagefile.sys, try lo lower it a little or disable it completely if you had assigned a decent qty of RAM to your VM
It was about 300 MB with 512 MB ram. It still fills 2,5 GB for Windows XP with Office allone, which is really a lot.
If you're shocked by 2.5 GB, don't try Windows 7 + Office 2007... (Close to 21 GB IIRC)
What problems do you have with mass storage requirements? I'm sure you are glad to spend 50$ for a 500gb disk, or you say to the dealer "I don't know what to do with such a huge disk, I just need a 2.5gb for my linux distro.."
What such unuseful discussion..