Vista - What's a good way to create a virtual server machine on a Vista 64bitPC?

Newbie question here. I want to set up a PC to run a virtual server on
it for use in disaster recovery situations. It has 4gb ram, 1tb HD,
and an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16 GHz chip, running Vista Business 64
bit. The idea is to create a vm on the PC, then boot to the VM from my
server backup software (Storagecraft ShadowProtect Server), then
restore a backup image straight to the vm.

I had used virtual PC and thought is would be "easy" to set up a
virtual server machine. But when I download the Hyper-V 2008 it keeps
trying to install server 2008 over my Vista OS. Should I just download
and use Virtual Server 2005? Or is there some other version of Hyper-V
that will allow creation of a virtual machine on Vista? Or some other
vm? Any pointers greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Ray

On Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:20:36 -0800 (PST), akus1 <jrcs22@xxxxxx>
wrote:
Hyper-V is either a stand-alone server or a server role in Windows
2008. It is not a component you can install in Vista. Only the
Hyper-V management console can be installed in Vista.

You would need use Virtual PC or Virtual Server, or a VMware or Sun VM
product to run as an application on Vista.

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

"akus1" <jrcs22@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:c9e41791-581e-4137-91fa-d711d9dcd73d@xxxxxxExactly what did you download? Normally you would download the .iso
file for Server 2008.

Installing the OS in the vm works just like installing it on hard
metal. You start the machine and load the installer from the DVD.

Did you create a virtual machine? If so start it up. It will try to
boot. Drag the server 2008 .iso you downloaded on to the CD icon at the
bottom of the virtual machine window. (This is equivalent to putting the DVD
into the drive on a physical machine. The .iso file is a DVD image). Now
reset your vm from the Action tab at the top of the window. It should
restart and load the installer.

"Bill Grant" <not.available@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:u8dOIRZZJHA.5772@xxxxxxThis assumes that you have installed the 64-bit version of VPC on your
Vista OS. I misread you reference to VPC and assumed that you were trying
to install the server under VPC (which should work).

Hyper-V is not like VPC or Virtual Server. It is not an app that you
install on an existing OS. It is a Server role. To use Hyper-V you must
install Server 2008 with Hyper-V, then enable the role. Vista SP1 can only
run the admin console.