Cannot install Server 2003 SP2 on a virtual PC running XP SP3.

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this particular question, but it's technically an installation problem. If it's in the wrong forum, I apologize.

I've just recently started a Computer Information Technology program at a university, and I'm in my first class, which is an intro class which is online as a summer class. My teacher does not have a text book for us, and he says it's a "research class" where we have to figure out everything on our own. All in all, he's not offered me anything at all that would help me figure out how to install Server 2003 on a virtual PC, and I'm not the only student having problems with trying to do this with zero instructions (for what it's worth, I'm in another class in the program which is nothing like this complete lack of instruction).

I ultimately have to make a video showing that I have the programs loaded (Virtual PC-done, MySQL-done, Server 2003-problems all week long), running, and then explain them, but I just can't get Server 2003 to work at all on my Windows 7 machine. I think I could probably get Server 2008 to work, but the university only uses 2003, hence my problem.

Basically, I downloaded the Virtual PC and Windows XP bundle off of Microsoft's site and installed those. I have created a virtual PC, and it's running XP SP3. Now, if I try to install Server 2003 on the virtual PC, it gives me various errors according to which installer I try to use:

WindowsServer2003.WindowsXP-KB914961-SP2-x64-ENU
amd64\update\update.exe is not a valid Win32 application.

WindowsServer2003-KB914961-SP2-x86-ENU
Service Pack 2 Setup Error - The version of Windows you have installed does not match the update you are trying to install.

If I use the X86 version for SP1, it gives the same error as the X64 SP2 error. I'd expect the SP2 X64 to work but not the others, however none of them work. I'm running a computer with Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, and the only thing I can think of at this point is that the Server 2003 programs only go up to SP2, and the virtual PC is on SP3, and that might be preventing the installation.

If I try to install Server 2003 outside the virtual PC, on Windows 7, it gives the error message of "not enough storage space is available to process this command," and according to the instructor's assignment file, I'm supposed to install this inside the virtual PC anyway. Also, if the XP SP3 is really the problem, I'm not sure how to go about putting SP2 on there because you can't downgrade it due to the way Microsoft gave it to me (I've tried already...).

Anyway, I've been working on trying to get this to even load all week and have had no luck. I don't really understand why it's not working at this point if it's not the conflict between Server 2003 SP2 and XP SP3. For what it's worth, I already have MySQL (community version) installed on the virtual PC if that helps any.

Thanks for any help you can give me with getting the thing to work!

kegobeer said:

You need to install Server 2003 in its own VM, not in a VM that already has XP in it. There are many ways to install an OS into Virtual PC - I suggest googling for instructions. We can't exactly tell you how, since it's a research project you have to complete.

Think of it this way - if you have a brand new computer with a brand new hard drive, would you install Windows 7 on it and then try to install Server 2003 inside of Windows 7? No, you would install Server 2003 on the brand new hard drive.

To be honest, I didn't realize Server 2003 was treated as an OS. The way his instructions vaguely explained it are to put MySQL and Server 2003 inside the virtual PC program. So, I've been approaching this the wrong way for the most part it seems.

Edit: I think a lot of this brought on myself above because I didn't realize 2003 was like an OS, and I thought you had to have an OS like XP on a virtual machine to do anything server related... To be fair, none of the guides I read made this distinction probably because they thought you'd already know this. And our discussion board I guess I may have been confused because a classmate said that he had had luck by downloading and installing Server 2003 from within a virtual machine...

Okay, I've seen a YouTube video of creating a virtual PC with an older version of the virtual PC software, and it gives the option of a drop box of selecting which OS you want to put on it. The only options I have are to name it, where it should be located, RAM allocated, use network connections, create a dynamically expanding disk, use an existing virtual hard disk, and create a virtual hard disk. I've not been able to find a video of doing this successfully on Windows 7.

But I really use the term research project loosely here. The teacher didn't state it as such (my term, not his) since it's just a lab. But basically he just said he's not using a text book and go find our answers on the net. I've been working on this all week without instructions or a book trying to find answers on the internet and I'm so close yet not there yet.

I had tried to initially download an ISO from Microsoft's website and burn that to a CD (but I think virtual PCs can load the ISO off the PC so burning is not required), changing the boot order to the drive first and HD second, but it doesn't recognize there's anything there and fails to boot anything (since it's blank). I think I may be using the wrong server 2003 ISO, but I'm not sure which is the right one for what I'm trying to do here. For example, I have a 64-bit operating system, but the MySQL 64-bit version doesn't work inside the virtual machine and the 32-bit does instead. Looking up My Computer and then Properties doesn't bring up the bit info for the virtual PC, so I'm guessing a virtual installation of XP just runs off 32-bit.

Would I be right in assuming I need to download an ISO of the 32-bit Server 2003, configure the virtual PC disc drive to load that ISO, change the boot order to the disc drive, and start up the virtual PC I want to have Server 2003 on it?

I'm sorry to sound like I'm stressing over this (well, I am), but I have to have all this on there before I can take future classes.

kegobeer said:

All of the information you need to install an OS in the latest Virtual PC, which is available as a free download from Microsoft for Windows 7, is right here.

How to Install an Operating System in Windows Virtual PC | 7 Tutorials

I found that by googling "install os on virtual pc".

You are not limited to 32 bit when using a VM. You can have a 32 bit OS running Virtual PC, and you can install a 64 bit operating system in a VM.

I actually had done exactly that, which is why I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I at least know now that what I had tried was right. To me, it looks like the error is that the Server 2003 ISOs I downloaded from Microsoft are not bootable, and I can't really tell which ones are. The error I'm getting with the (I presume) non-bootable ISOs is pxe-e53: No boot filename received. The files I had used are these:

Download: Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (32-bit x86) - ISO-9660 CD Image File - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details
Download: Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, x64 Editions - ISO-9660 CD Image File - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details

Does Microsoft have some special naming system for bootable ISOs of Server 2003 that I'm not seeing?

Again, thanks for the help here.

Edit: I was able to find this: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard 64-bit (English) located on a site affiliated with my school and I'm currently downloading that to see if it's what I need.

Okay, that was the file I needed, just the 32 bit version. It turns out that that was one of the first things I had tried, but I didn't realize which ISO I needed or what file was the required one since it didn't appear obvious to me on the Microsoft site. Thanks for the help.