Vista - installing windows vista

Please dont be mad if this is a repost. I wanna install windows vista on
either virtual pc for mac or on an external (firewire or usb) hdd. whenever
i try to install it using an external hard drive during the installation
process when it tries to reboot it says it cannot boot off the hard drive.
can i configure the bios so it can be bootable? if not, can i install vista
on virtual pc for mac?

USB external drives are to XP & Vista defined as "Removable".
I'm not sure about Firewire, but with USB externals you cannot
install to them because of the removable classification. Only SCSI
and eSATA external drives appear as "Fixed" drives and support
booting from.
Can speak to VPC for MAC, but VPC on Windows has some
issues with installing/running Vista Beta 2.


"dan" <dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B8E75B63-5686-49BB-B123-49B2A92CAF38@microsoft.com...
> Please dont be mad if this is a repost. I wanna install windows vista
> on
> either virtual pc for mac or on an external (firewire or usb) hdd.
> whenever
> i try to install it using an external hard drive during the installation
> process when it tries to reboot it says it cannot boot off the hard drive.
> can i configure the bios so it can be bootable? if not, can i install
> vista
> on virtual pc for mac?

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:39:02 -0700, dan
<dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>Please dont be mad if this is a repost. I wanna install windows vista on
>either virtual pc for mac or on an external (firewire or usb) hdd. whenever
>i try to install it using an external hard drive during the installation
>process when it tries to reboot it says it cannot boot off the hard drive.
>can i configure the bios so it can be bootable? if not, can i install vista
>on virtual pc for mac?

Dan its a beta and you are asking it to do a lot of trick stuff,
virtual PC can be done using a MSFT virtual PC but I don't know any
more than that. USB, Firewire etc maybe it is possible dunno I would
not try with a beta. Vista on Virtual PC for MAC...............who
knows have a go....................good luck lol.

Why don't you just get a cheap 40 Gb HDD and install it clean on that,
far better chance of success, unplug your existing drives and stick
the new drive in on its own. When it all goes wrong (and it will) just
plug your normal drives back it - no harm done.

Try the trick stuff when its actually released and supported and use
test PCs not production PCs.

Jonah

Not possible. You cannot boot Vista from usb or firewire drives. VPC on
Mac emulates the intel cpu and that is way too slow. (VPC on Windows
virtualizes the cpu which is at least three times faster and even it is very
slow.)

"jonah" <jonah123@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:2ql392lhkn68m616uj8el3phiks44euli9@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:39:02 -0700, dan
> <dan@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>>Please dont be mad if this is a repost. I wanna install windows vista
>>on
>>either virtual pc for mac or on an external (firewire or usb) hdd.
>>whenever
>>i try to install it using an external hard drive during the installation
>>process when it tries to reboot it says it cannot boot off the hard drive.
>>can i configure the bios so it can be bootable? if not, can i install
>>vista
>>on virtual pc for mac?
>
> Dan its a beta and you are asking it to do a lot of trick stuff,
> virtual PC can be done using a MSFT virtual PC but I don't know any
> more than that. USB, Firewire etc maybe it is possible dunno I would
> not try with a beta. Vista on Virtual PC for MAC...............who
> knows have a go....................good luck lol.
>
> Why don't you just get a cheap 40 Gb HDD and install it clean on that,
> far better chance of success, unplug your existing drives and stick
> the new drive in on its own. When it all goes wrong (and it will) just
> plug your normal drives back it - no harm done.
>
> Try the trick stuff when its actually released and supported and use
> test PCs not production PCs.
>
> Jonah

I am trying to install Vista b2 in Virtual PC 2004 running Windows XP - both
as Host and Guest OS.

My machine does not have a DVD drive, so I have mounted the downloaded ISO
using VCdControlTool control panel, which loads a driver, and mounts the ISO
as a "virtual CD" - which seems to work fine in itself.

The problem is - when I run the installer in the Virtual PC environment, it
gets to the screen where you select the type of install: "Upgrade" or
"Custom" - (upgrade is disabled, because I don't have beta 1 installed?
Whatever). So I select "Custom" - and go into the next screen where it
selects the drive to install on. My C: drive has about 1.4 gigs free, so I
select that, but the "Next" button will not activate.

Is there some way to "hack" the installer to make it install on C:? there's
plenty of space. Can I code up an answer file or something?