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Installing Vista to Virtual Server, VirtualPC, or VMWare

If you are the type to install Vista to a virtual machine before you actually upgrade your system, you might run into the issue that I did.

When I tried to install, I wouldn't get very far and the install wouldn't even start.  My issue was that I was trying to mount the Vista ISO directly into Virtual Server.  The drivers that they use to mount these images are only for CD ISOs and consequently only work with ISOs that are smaller than 1 GB. 

To get around this issue, you could actually burn the DVD and mount the physical host drive to you virtual machine, get the drivers updated on your VM, or mount the ISO to your host machine then mount that drive to your VM.

I chose the third method since I already had Daemon Tools installed.

So in short:
  • Mount the Vista ISO to your host machine using Daemon Tools.
  • Set your VM to "Use physical drive" and point it to the mounted image.
  • Boot up your VM.
Hope this help.

-JP