Dual Boot XP 32-bit / Server 2008 R2 64-bit

I ran Virtualbox to test my Server 2008 R2 and get all weird errors ( At the moment i'm Dual Booting Win7 and XP (both 32-bit) on my PC). I have VirtualBox installed on my XP O/S and was trying to run Server 2008 R2 64-bit via VirtualBox, but get diff errors. My question now is this --->
1) Is it because a "clash" of the 2 different "bit" Operating systems;
2) Can i install Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) on my PC and still have a dual-boot with XP 32-bit...or MUST BOTH O/S'es have the SAME BIT?

PS: after the above i took a chance and installed 2008 on my PC...worked like a charm. Seems like it has something to do with Virtualbox thats running on a 32-bit Winxp system...

Hi there

I don't know about VBOX but using VMWARE (Workstation or player) there is NO problem running a 64 bit VM Guest on a 32 Bit host -- Before W7 final came out I was regularly running W7 x-64 guests on Windows XP hosts.

If you do this remember you need to ensure on INTEL CPU's the VT feature is enabled in the (REAL Machine's) BIOS (for AMD there is a similar feature but can't remember what it's called).

Remember however that because your HOST is a 32 bit OS the maximum RAM HOSTS and GUESTS will see is 4GB so don't give your guest W7 x-64 system too much RAM.

Otherwise there shouldn't be ANY problem running W2K8 x-64 server as a VM on an XP machine.

Don't bother any more with Dual booting -- there isn't really a need for this any more -- just fire up the appropriate VM when you need it.

Cheers
jimbo