For those that are still not sure about Windows 8

Ztruker said:

No, nothing else running in Vbox.

This has to be a limitation between Windows 8 and Vbox. I've read a few threads on WIn 8 in Vbox and all say to turn on Virtualization, so that has to be the problem. I'll post in the Vbox forum and see what they say.

I think you are right. I just tried to run Win8 with Virtualization off - no deal. It ran into the repair console.

Bummer. I'll reinstall it to a spare partition if I can think of a reason to do so.

Right now I disliked it so much I don't want to install it. I was just interested in seeing it run under Vbox.

Thanks for the help.

I know Rich. vBox is the best deal. I had it in double boot on one of my laptops - what a disaster. Booting into Win7 then took 10 times as long. It had to go thru the BIOS twice. Booting into Win8 was a little better but still slow. I am used to 12 - 15 second boot times because I have SSDs on all my systems. But even the SSD did not seem to help (on an i7 system).

In vBox, Win8 boots in 8 seconds and my Win7 system is not being disturbed. I only notice a longer shutdown time. But that only happens sometimes. Who knows what that is. I wanted to track it but was too lazy to do it.

One other option you have is to install it on an external eSata drive. I think you have a laptop. Get a PCI-e Express card for eSata (they cost less than $20) and an external eSata enclosure (also less than $20). Stick a bare bone HDD into there. Then take your laptop HDD out and install on the eSata HDD. Then you switch the boot order with the BIOS. If I had an Express slot on my laptop, that's what I would do. But Toshiba was to cheap to provide it. The Sony lappy that I returned had an eSata port, but that is water under the bridge.

Not a laptop, it's an Dell Precision 370 Intel P4 3.4Ghz, single core, dual thread, 4GB ram. Runs Win 7 beautifully but no Virtualization in BIOS.

I'll just sit on the sidelines and kibbitz with Win 8 for now.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions though. I really do appreciate it.

Here is a pretty good one for desktops: Newegg.com - Rosewill RC-210 Silicon Image Internal SATA / External eSATA Low Profile Ready PCI Controller Card

Would be ashame if you could not participate in all the excitement.

PS: I am still trying to figure out how to run it from a 16 or 32GB USB stick. That would be the easiest. Made already one attempt. But that did not work.

Does W7 Pro (64 bit) support VHD operations?
If so, have you tried a VHD, Ztruker?

I have W7 Ultimate (64 bit) and that's how I'm running W8.

The CP is an Ultimate edition. So chances are it will work. Shawn made a nice tutorial: Virtual Hard Drive VHD File - Create and Start with at Boot

Normally I am all praises for Microsoft all the time. But it is my honest opinion that in releasing Windows 8 Microsoft is just being unnaturally profit conscious.

My Windows 7 Pro is version 6.1.7601 and the OS is about 4 to 5 years old. Now in Windows 8, Microsoft is releasing version 6.2 (possibly 6.2.223793 but not sure). If they had wanted they could have released all the extra enhancements of Windows 8 as a SP2 to Windows 7. The reason in making a new release when users are just about settling down to windows 7 should be clear to one and all.

I shall wait for Windows version 7.0 (dubbed Windows 9 perhaps) and maybe install it too, if I am alive when it is released.

VHD requires Virtualization.