Vista - Cannot install XP

I want to install Win XP in Virtual PC 2004 but VPC says I need to have a
system floppy disk to get the OS installed on the virtual hard drive. VPC
will not read the bootable CD in the CD drive.

My XP computer did not include any floppy disks. Did some retail shelf
versions have a floppy boot disk?

How do I solve this little hurdle? I was really looking forward to trying
this solution to some problems as opposed to purchasing a new computer, which
just isn't in the budget at the moment.

I considered trying VPC 2007, but concerns about unneeded Vista junk made me
choose VPC 2004.

"Ken Springer" <wordworks.nospam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:341588DB-70B7-4DCD-ACC2-C961D7BEEBE1@xxxxxx
Are you certain that the CD is bootable...?

Virtual machines are considered the same as physical machines in terms of
licensing - you will require a separate licence for Window XP in order to
install it on a virtual machine...

That makes no sense - please explain what you mean...


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

Hi, Mark,

Replies in your message below:

"Mark Rae [MVP]" wrote:
It certainly is. I tested it after it wouldn't work with VPC 2004. It
would have happily installed XP for me.

That is also not a problem. This is not the CD that came with the computer,
but the computer also did not come with any floppies.

I'm a college student. The university has some kind of deal, apparently,
with MS that allows students to get free and legitimate copies of XP Pro with
either SP 1, SP 2, or SP 3. So I downloaded a copy of the SP 3 version.

The computer itself is a bit long in the tooth, and came with XP Home
preinstalled. But the mfgr. of the computer supplied a pair of restore CD's,
and they are simply a disk image, no actual software cd's. So obviously I
didn't get any boot floppies with the computer either.

VPC 2004 refused to boot from the CD. After thinking about it, there
probably isn't a fake bios to ask you if you want to boot from the CD during
boot up. But if VPC *IS* supposed to recognize a bootable CD, it didn't.

So, being somewhat depressed, I opened the CD and found an html file about
bootable floppies. In it, MS says it will no longer support bootable
floppies for XP releases with SP 3 and after. But, if you want/need bootable
floppies for the older versions of XP, they can be created by downloading and
running the appropriate file from MS's website.

So, I went back to the university, downloaded the version with SP2,
downloaded the file from MS, made the floppies, and VPC 2004 was a happy
camper. I now a working virtual PC.

As I said, the computer is a tad old. I also have a cell phone with Win
Mobile 6 on it. When I bought the phone, I was using Office 2000 Pro, and
Outlook. Active Sync, Win Mobile 6, and Outlook 2000 aren't completely
compatible, if I'm to believe the error messages.

So I bought a standalone copy of Outlook 2007. For me, there wasn't a
single feature in Outlook 2007 that made 2007 an improvement for me. All it
did was take 3 times longer to do the same thing. I was not happy about
that!!!!!!

I wasn't about to try VPC 2007 for fear of a possible slowdown. After
dealing with Outlook 2007, why on earth would I even test it?

Ken

You have to mount the CD drive at the virtual machine startup process. Check
the help information for this.
VPC 2007 has nothing with Vista to do - its just an improved VPC 2004.

"Ken Springer" <wordworks.nospam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:9D5145F5-EEA8-436C-9D46-4A93E687DC20@xxxxxx
What does VPC 2007 have to do with Outlook 2007...?


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

I did that, even changed from secondary to primary IDE controller. It still
didn't work, regardless of whether I chose the CD reader/writer or the DVD
player.

At least I only had to log in twice to see your message, that's one better
than trying to read Mark's. LOL

As for help........ It would "help" if MS hadn't removed most references to
2004 from the website. Every knowledge base article for "2004" I wanted to
read simply took me to the 2007 home page, with nothing easily visible **on
the opening screen** that indicated the site was for both 2004 and 2007.
That could have been easilly accomplished by simply saying "2004/2007". :-)

"jorgensen" wrote:

Make an iso file of the disc and mount it at boot up.
Check the BIOS settings for correct boot up - CD first.
Don't have VPC 2004, so that's all what I can help with.

Ken Springer wrote:Ken:

If you used a newsreader to access the Microsoft newsgroups you would not have
to log in at all.

Microsoft has improved the product with VPC 2007 and they want you to use it.
What's wrong with that? Yes, some products get more bloated over time, but I do
not think this is particularly true of VPC 2007, even though one of the major
improvements is to allow Vista as a guest OS.

--
David Wilkinson
Visual C++ MVP

"David Wilkinson" <no-reply@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eeKZLYkpJHA.5832@xxxxxx
Well said.
Well said again.


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

I think the ISO file was the first CD I tried. None of them worked until I
used the floppies.

Maybe an improvement here is part of VPC 2007.

As for the BIOS, it is set to boot from the CD drives on the computer's
motherboard, but I'm thinking that the VPC 2004 software doesn't check it.

"jorgensen" wrote: