Windows 8 or Windows Server 8 installation to VHD (Not a VM)

Okay, so you want to preview Windows 8 Consumer Preview or Windows 8 Server Beta but you dont want to use a VM or wipe out or do any repartitioning of your systems. Well your in Luck... heres how to go about it.

This is not for any XP based system unfortunatly, but for any system with Windows 7 or Vista installed as we are going to make use of the newer BCD store, though there are ways of using this with a native XP installed, but thats another story.

So first things first. if you havent already got your copy of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview make your way to here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/iso

Help yourself to the ISO of chioce and take note of the key, you will need it for Windows 8 install. Burn the ISO to a DVD and away we shall go.

I will be using Windows 8 Server Beta to do this, but the initial preperation for the drive is identical whether you use Win 8 Server or Win 8.

Shall we start?
Okay, the usual boot option when booting froma DVD Drive, hit a key at this point as always if you want the DVD to boot.

When the DVD has booted choose your Time and currancy format and click next.

When you are at this screen do not continue right away.

Use the key combination of SHIFT - F10 to bring up a command prompt and type 'diskpart', this is what you should see.

Now here is where the magic happens.
The first thing you want to do is list the available Hard Drives by entering 'LIST DISK'.

Now we need to select the disk you wish to use for this procedure, enter 'SELECT DISK 0', where '0' is the drive you want to use, I'm usin the only one on the system so '0' it is.

Next list the Volumes on the now selected disk by entering 'LIST VOLUME'. As you can see there are a few here, the one you want is the volume that holds the Win 7 install, in this case the biggest one at 39Gb, take a note of the drive letter it is using.

Now, this is where we create the VHD for our installation. there are various options for creating a VHD file, but ill not go into this for this article, just to say that the following command will create the VHD needed for Win 8 to install into one.

Execute the following command to create a 20Gb VHD file that is not Dynamic:

'CREATE VDISK FILE=d:\win8.vhd MAXIMUM=20000 TYPE=FIXED'

Notice that the location of the file uses the letter of the volume I want it to be in.

Now we need to select the newly created VHD file, execute the following comand:
'SELECT VDISK FILE=d:\win8.vhd'

Next we attach the VDISK so the current environment sees it as a drive, execute the comand:
'ATTACH VDISK'

Now we need to partition the virtual disk: 'CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY'

And format it: 'FORMAT FS=NTFS QUICK'

A drive letter needs to given to the VDISK now, not entirly sure if this is necessary but it doesnt hurt.
'ASSIGN LETTER=V:'

To see what all that has done do a 'LIST VOLUME' and you will see a new volume with the letter V ready to be used.

If you want, you can do a 'LIST VDISK' to see the attached Virtual disk you have created.

Type 'EXIT at the prompt twice to return you to the windows setup screen.

Now you can start the install.

As I was installing Windows 8 Server Beta is was not asked at any point for a serial number, but be assured that the Windows 8 Consumer Preview will, so at some point you will need the serial from the download page.

I decided to install the full GUI version of Win 8 Server.

Accept the usual Lic Terms.

Go for the Custom Install to do a full installation.

and when you cat to the part asking where you want to install windows, you now choose the Virtual Drive you created, in this case its Drive1 Partition 1. You may notice that there is a warning that it cannot be installed there, but it will anyway so ignore it.

And off it goes

let it reboot

then let it reboot again, here you can now see that is now in the selectable options for booting between Windows 7 and Windows Server 8 Beta.

Windows Server now askes for a password for the Administrator account

It goes through a finalisation phase.

And here it is ready.

CTRL - ALT - DEL and your ready to log in.

Win 8 Server starts at the Desktop screen and starts Server Manager by default.

Server Manager Dashboard

As you can see Server 8 has the same METRO UI as Win 8 and acts in the same way.

And you shutdown the same way as do Win 8

Click on Power

You get to Shut Down or Restart

It will ask in the usual server way why you are shutting down

Though now there are more options.

Hit Continue.

And it surprisingly shuts down. :)

Well lets hope this was informative and useful to some.

XPMode on Win 7 Home and Home Premium

I have discovered a way to install XPMode's Virtual PC onto the Home versions of Win 7.

Make your way to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx and select one of the Professional/Enterprise or Ultimate OS selections and then your language.

You will now be able to download the files to your system. the only one you need to worry about is the third step, Windows Virtual PC Download. Install this component and then reboot, you now have Virtual PC installed onto your system. if you still have the media and a license for XP you can now go ahead and install XP then install the Integration Components, and viola you now have XPMode in the Home and Premuim versions of Win 7.

You could download the Windows XP Mode step 2 but you will find that it will not work as XP Mode detects your underlying OS version and will not run under the Home and Premium versions of Win 7.

LAX

I have been lax, very lax in this little blog...

No matter, i shall endeavor to do better.

I have a few things I would like to put up, like Windows Developer Preview stuff.

I have for instance managed to install it into a VHD file on Windows 7 to boot in native mode fom the Windows 7 boot options.

Still lets hope i make better use of this blog in the future.

Acer Aspire One AO5150 charging problem

I have recently been ignoring my little Acer Aspire One netbook, it's been languishing in a corner for the last five months.

I picked it up and found that the battery was dead (no surprise there), but when I plugged it in to charge it would not.

So off I went in search of solutions, it turns out that that the BIos for my model would not support the high capacity battery that I bought, so time to update the Bios. Here's what you need to do:

You will need the following things:

Acer Aspire One Netbook of course.
A USB Thumb Drive,
And an Internet Connection.

Okay on a separate computer, go to Acer.com and navigate your way to the drivers download for the AO5150, find the latest BIOS and download.

Open the .zip file and extract the two files located under the DOS folder: "3310.fd" and "Flashit.exe" onto your thumb drive. Rename "3310.fd" to "zg5ia32.fd"

Now take your thumb drive to your powered off Netbook and insert it.

You will need to press and hold down the "Fn" and "Esc" keys and turn on the Netbook while still holding these keys for about 30 seconds, then let go.

Your Netbook should stay black for up to 2-4 minutes or so. Once it restarts, safely remove the thumb drive, and charge it for a while. It should successfully hold a charge from now on.

Today I have done techies things

I did techie things, as is my want, the cursing was phenomenal, M$ has a lot to answer for, as do some software companies who live in the tech dark ages of the 1990's

This day and age you would think that they would cater for at the very least XP, but Noooo! I have had the privilege of installing an application into a student computing lab, an application which they tell you needs to be installed and run as Administrator, even have the UAC disabled, and they class this as a Windows 7 compatible application.. Oh and when they say administrator they mean the Administrator account not the group or a user with admin privileges... grrrr!

Still, all in all I'm off for three days now. Next week I'll probably go insane, but then to anyone who knows me on Twitter that's not news :-)

I must now RDP into a server at work to set some permissions on a labs computers so that the lackeys can get on with some work while I'm way :-)

Bliss...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPad the unwrapping.

When I got back home with the iPad after chomping at the bit all afternoon as I was at work, I had to make dinner and eat before unpacking the new baby in my life. So first thing I did was make the wife guilty by just arranging on the coffee table the neatly packaged bits :-)



After dinner was served, in which I made a pig of myself trying to stuff all three courses into my mouth at once to get it over with in record time, I moved over to the coffee table where the "iPad" awaited in it's box.
It stood there like a monolith from 2001, beckoning me.



The unpacking began.



Nicely was it wrapped in plastic it was...



Of course the rest of the items in the packaging is minimal, data sync cable and plug for charging.



The usual instruction stuff, not that there are many useful things in there, mainly pointers to the Apple site for various add ons like mobile me. Oh and the usual Apple stickers. (I once put one of those on a shredder :)



Ooh it's so sleek :-D



Let's get ready to connect the little beauty...



The only place to connect anything on the iPad, except the earphone Jack at the top of the unit.



The first screen at switch on. Sorry about the flash.



Okay, I was given a microsim to try out with the iPad at the store, so I proceeded tp go through the instructions for installing it using the supplied tool to release the microsim receptacle.



Unfortunately as you can see from this, the sim was not a microsim. It had no hope in hell of fitting.



But here we are now, two weeks on and and a very useful tool it has become, a last snapshot of the screen as it is of this moment :)




Hope you've enjoyed this unwrapping of a 21st Century iconic technology which I'm sure will be as every bit as successful as the iPhone.

I will give a list and comments on the useful apps I have found so far, most of them freebies, in the next blog, be patient ; D

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPad

I have just recently purchased an iPad, very stupidly I was of the assumption that I could just stroll into an Apple Store on a Saturday and just pick one up. Of course this was not the case, I was very gently told “no sir, you will have to put in an order". It would appear that the iPad is still a hot little number for Apple.

Well I duly put my name down and waited. Not too long though to my delight, for on the Tuesday, there it was, a little e-mail from Apple telling me my iPad was in stock and awaiting my collection, with the added line that it would only be kept for me till the next day. Well I must say, come lunchtime that day i was out of work and on the underground winging my way to the Apple store and nobody was going to get between me and my iPad.

I entered the store rushed to one of the counters and said “I believe you have an iPad reserved for me?”, though in all honesty I was thinking “you boy! get my iPad pronto, I’ll have no dilly dallying you hear?”

While the young gentleman went in search of the haloed iPad i was about to purchase, I was directed upstairs, the accessories section of the store, the place where you very quickly add around another £110 worth to the already pricey item your about to pay for, you think to yourself, “I’d better get a cover for this shiny new thing in my life, Oh and what's that? this Mobile me thingy here is £15 off it you buy it with the iPad” well its all good after all, it’ll be a useful thing to have, forgetting of course that this will be a yearly subscription.

So, you hand over the credit card and pay full whack, hoping that the credit card company are not going to stop the transaction or query it because you never use it for that amount of dosh.it all go’s smoothly thank god, until of course your on your way back down stairs to the ground floor of the store and your mobile phone go’s off. This is the credit card company getting in touch with you to confirm the transaction you just did for the overly large amount. Of course your not using an iPhone but its a touch screen phone, the automated voice on the other end asks you to press any key to continue… But you know how it is, can you find the combination to release the touch keypad? No of course not, so you the stairs fighting with your phone in the middle of the Apple Store looking like a right idiot, and the young man who served you has rushed off, especially as he now knows you work in in IT but seem incapable of using a phone.

Well I am the proud owner of WiFi/3g 65Gb model (top of the range to you lackeys out there) and I’m just going through the features and really exploring its potential.

One other thing, I was given an O2 package with a PAYG microsim, but in opening it up I found a normal sim which had absolutely no chance of fitting, so currently I have no 3g access, but the WiFi is great both at home and at work, at home I’m taking advantage of may wireless N access point and getting super fast connection.

I’ll sign off now and follow up with some pics soon I promise :)