I haven't installed my Windows 7 yet and have a couple of quetions is all. I have Vista Ultimate, intel (R0 Core (TM)2 Duo E8400 processor, on my computer so I am debating what to do. I have the following programs, not installed yet, Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V and Virtual PC 2007. I have been thinking about installing Windows 7 as a virtual PC on a seperate hard drive, usb. I have 5 PC's at home here that are networked. I just finished my BSIT/software engineering and am now going for my masters in information systems. My question is, which one of the above would be the best to use to accomplish this? Ideas please, thanks,Ken

You should know that USB external hard drives are designed for backups and file storage only. You can install Windows 7 beta in Microsoft's Virual PC 2007 as long as the Virtual PC is installed on your internal hard drive. I've done it and it runs great!Carey Frisch

Thanks for the info Carey.I was looking at a post, can't remember from who, but it says:9. Give your new virtual hard disk a name and location. I suggest using a location that has at least 16GB of disk space available. An external (e.g. USB2) hard drive works well for this purpose since its portable and it allows your computer to load balance disk IO between your system drive and the external drive. For Virtual hard disk size leave the default value and click Next when ready.So that is why I was thinking of installing it on my HP Personal Media Drive, but maybe that won't work.Ken

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 has to be installed on a drive running a supported Windows operating system.I don't know where you obtained your alternative installation, but it won't work.Carey Frisch

Hi Ken, The VPC (or virtual hard disk) can be stored on a external disk (running on Firewire or USB2.0), as it will allow better disk IO between the system drive and the external drive. That's correct. For my presentations and trainings, I have my VHD (virtual hard disk) stored in an external hard disk and the performance is much faster, and I can load them up in any machine I want. However if you are thinking of installing Win7 (or any Windows-based OS) into the external disk physically (without using any virtualization software and booting the computer through your USB external drive), this is not supported.Jabez Gan [MVP] - http://www.msblog.org Contributing Author for: (Sybex) MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration Study Guide: Exam 70-643

Jabez,Thank you very much for your input, it really helps. I think then what I will do is is place VPC along with Windows 7 on an HP Pocket Media Drive and run things from there. If I am understanding you correctly I can do this.Thanks Again,Ken

Hi Ken, Yes, as long as VPC software is installed on the machine, just create a VM (virtual machine) and point it to the VHD on the external hard disk (HP Pocket Media Drive). :)Jabez Gan [MVP] - http://www.msblog.org Contributing Author for: (Sybex) MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration Study Guide: Exam 70-643

Jabez,Thank you again, I am glad that you wrote me back because I guess that I was confused. I had thought that you said to install the VPC on the external hard disk as well and then install the Windows on it. But after reading your last post I install the VPC on the computer and then install Windows on the external hard drive.Glad that I wrote back and you answered me or I would have really screwed things up.Thanks,Ken

Hey Ken, :) If you have any other questions, feel free to create a new thread.Jabez Gan [MVP] - http://www.msblog.org Contributing Author for: (Sybex) MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure Configuration Study Guide: Exam 70-643