Vista - How to instal OS on a Virtual PC

I have just installed Virtual PC on a Vista Home Premium machine and created
a virtual hard disk. The problem I have is how do I install XP on the
virtual machine - when I insert the XP cd the option to install the OS is
greyed out!

Would you appreciate your help.

Jan

"Jan" <jp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eijK4S2kJHA.2064@xxxxxx
Exactly the same way as you would install XP on a physical machine...
1) Make sure there is no CD in the host's optical drive.

2) Launch Virtual PC

3) Start up the virtual machine and wait for it to tell you that it can't
find an OS to boot from. If the network boot prompt seems to spin for ages,
just hit the Escape key.

4) Insert the XP boot CD into the host's optical drive.

5) On the VPC console menu, click CD, Use Physical Drive D: (or whichever
drive letter the host machine assigns to the optical drive containing the XP
boot media)

6) On the VPC console menu, click Action, Ctrl-Alt-Del - this will reboot
the virtual machine and, assuming the XP media is bootable and not corrupt
in any way, begin the installation process just like a physical machine.


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

Thank you Mark, problem solved.


"Mark Rae [MVP]" <mark@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:e4YY5b2kJHA.4760@xxxxxx

Mark,

I've tried to install several times, using the method you described and also
using an ISO image. Every time VPC reverts to "Reboot and Select proper boot
device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Device". Any Ideas?

"Mark Rae [MVP]" wrote:

"Doug Vanderhoof" <Doug Vanderhoof@xxxxxx> wrote in
message news:C9EFE2D9-B8B5-4873-B976-C4B194944365@xxxxxx
First things first: are you absolutely certain that the media is actually
bootable...?


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net

Yes, it's a volume license disk from MS.

"Mark Rae [MVP]" wrote:

On Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:57:00 -0800, Doug Vanderhoof
<DougVanderhoof@xxxxxx> wrote:
In that case make an ISO file from the CD (using for instance WinImage
www.winimage.com). Then start the guest and drag drop the ISO file
onto the CD icon in the bottom of the guest window.
Then go to the Action menu and select to Reset the machine.
If it won't boot now then you might have to go into the *guest* BIOS
and make sure that the boot order includes the CD drive.

Installing from ISO is usually much faster, too.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Done all that with the same result. (Guest) BIOS is set to boot first from
CD then from HD. Depending on whether I have the CD on the primary or
secondary IDE channel, I get an ATAPI Incompatible message.

"Bo Berglund" wrote:

On Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:17:01 -0800, Doug Vanderhoof
<DougVanderhoof@xxxxxx> wrote:
You've booted a physical machine with the CD?

Can you try a different CD?

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

Turns out that particular disk was not bootable (upgrade disk), but I
subsequently tried another that was bootable (succesfully on another machine)
with the same result.

If the CD is set as secondary controller the message is "Non-system disk or
disk error", if CD is set as primary controller, the message is "Secondary
Channel (0) Drvie - ATAPI Incompatible". These messages apply regardless of
whether it's a CD or ISO image.

"Steve Jain [MVP]" wrote: