G+: Turns out it's not too hard to convince …

David Coles
Turns out it's not too hard to convince a Windows 7 disk image (from a real system) to boot in a VM, you just need to tell Windows not to BSoD when it fails to find your IDE or AHCI controller (basically the same as http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314082). Tweak some registry settings and then Windows will happily boot (a tiny bit slower) and start installing the required drivers for the rest of the hardware.

Only downside is it really pisses off Windows Genuine Advantage. ;)

You receive a Stop 0x0000007B error after you move the Windows XP system disk to another computer
Jeremy Visser
Sometimes I can get it working. Sometimes I can't. I wish there was a more concise way of knowing which controllers are and aren't required.