How-To Geek

I was trying to install W7 in the Sun xVM VirtualBox. I was able to define a virtual partition ( named it "Windows7 system"). But now I am stuck trying to load W7 into that virtual partition. Their (otherwise pretty good) documentation just says "install as usual". But there is no "as usual". when I just start the partition, I get a little black window that says: "FATAL: No bootable medium fond! System halted." And when I hit F12 for the boot sequence, I get this: (no clicking or moving the up/down keys does anything here)

Can anybody enlighten me on how I get my W7 into my virtual partition?

I might be wrong, but the Win7 you downloaded is a (FULL) Installation image that must burned onto a DVD and then installed on a HD.
The HD must be Bios Bootable and (Not) a USB storage HD unless one has some kind of special custom machine.
After the Win7 O/S is fully physically installed, then you can run it in a virtual mode.

Give me a few minutes to burn a DVD.

Now I have problems with VB. I shall have to leave it till the morning. Sorry, I'm tired.

@whs: in VirtualBox, make sure you have your DVD drive assigned to the VM. In the VM settings on the main page, click on the (i think) CD-Rom option on the right hand side. Tell it to mount whatever drive letter you need it to. Otherwise, you can mount an ISO

On the bottom right of the VirtualBox window, on the screen you had ^^, you should see a picture of a CD. You can right click that, and mount different drives.

Just to make sure...burn the image as an image and not a file...meaning burn the image directly to the dvd, not the file as a data disk. I've done that before...doesn't work too well

as far as i can remember, you dont really need a cd/dvd.
i think you need to mount the actualy iso into the program. (i.e win 7.iso)
i have a magazine here which gives a detailed step by step guide on how to do it. i will have to dig it up tomorrow and i will get back to you on this. in the meantime have a look, i am pretty sure u simply mount the .iso into the program.
i will tomorrow evening ( about 15 hours time from now) scan the document and post it here. which will give you all the info you need to get win 7 working on virtual box. in the meantime i suggest you have a closer look and see if it asks you to mount the .iso
i am 95% sure about this.

look at my post on your other article, i cant be bothered at 3 am to link it for a comparison (sort off) between VM and real installation of wiin 7.

sorry about the waiting period..its really late right now, can barely keep eyes open and morning i have to go to some summer school #*!$^**(%
ill try and see if i can fit it in my schedule but i make no promises.

@whs - With the windows 7 beta, I was able to install perfectly in the newest version. when you create a new image, try these settings (please note I do not have in front of me):

Operating system (guest machine) - Windows other
Ram: 1gb
Choose a 20gbn dynamic hard drive (used the settings wizard)

Once this is created, go to the settings and click the cd/dvd location. Click the box "Mount cd", then instead of choose a drive letter, use the box that says choose image. It should open a wizard that lets you load your windows 7 image into virtual box for use.

Start the virtual machine - it may seem like its not doing much, but if you leave it for about 5 minutes it will start to boot up and install. It works smoothly. If you want, I can follow up with screenshots?

Thank you guys. Very kind of you to give me all those details. But I did all that and Virtual Box would still not budge - CD, USB stick or ISO file in Downloads. It just did not want any of it. Courtesy of Scott, I got the link to Microsoft Virtual PC. I tried this. It kept saying that Vista Home Premium is not supported, only Ultimate, etc. But I insisted and it actually did work after all. I gave it 1GB of RAM and 25GB of disk. The installation time of W7 was long. Especially the "Expanding Files" part took 6 hours. I let it run over night and eventually it was all installed. Now I have a few new problems. I am working with a German keyboard and after the corresponding settings during installation and in the keyboard settings that works fine - except it would not recognize the "@" sign. Thus I cannot type any email adress etc. I'll have to figure that out. I think there is an "advanced" package that I might have to get.
In general, the performance in the virtual machine is not too bad (except for the installation) - but, of course, it is not comparable with a real machine environment. But that does not matter since I can switch instantly between the virtual W7 and the real Vista. So it is good enough for playing around with W7. I also adjusted the screen resolution which gave me a window of about a 17" screen - which is nice on my 22" real screen.
And here is my first shiny Windows7 desktop. My own desktop pictures that I downloaded from Photobucket, did not work. They were all distorted. Must be a resolution problem. I'll figure that one out later. Keep your comments coming. This is exiting stuff.

Thanks Taybay, That's what I was planning to do.
PS: Nice to see you back. Where is your geeky cousin? Btw, I am still using the "deskpins" you once recommended - very useful.

It (W7) actually does not "see" much hardware. Just the CD drive and the virtual disk. Plus, interestingly enough, a Floppy that I don't even have. I still have to figure out how I can get it to see the USB ports. That would be useful for file transfer.