Installing Vista with an Older BIOS

By Terence J. Grant 12/05/2006 08:25

As with any non-standard operating system installation, there is always a possibilty for data loss or hardware damage– especially unintentionally.

Neither I nor this site will be held responsible for any data/hardware loss/damage caused by use of this article.

This entire article is “Use at your own risk!”

I had to buy a new PC recently, so that I could do some work with OpenGL 2.0 and GLSL. I had also downloaded Windows Vista RC 2 from Microsoft's public Beta site after reading about it on Slashdot. I thought it would be kinda cool to not only do my OpenGL 2.0 work on a newer PC (which is probably dated by now), but why not in the Vista beta since it's available to anyone? Well unfortunately it seems I could only have one or the other… and sorry, but OpenGL had to win; and I reverted back to XP on the host machine.

So I thought it would be kinda fun to at least play with it on my older machine, a Toshiba Laptop1). But unfortunately I couldn't install it. I got the same error so many other people got on the blue install screen of death… The message “This computer is not compliant with the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) standard,” along with information about getting a BIOS update from the manufacturer.

Well, the only problem was, I had the latest BIOS… that was updated… some time last year. So it wasn't going to happen.

And it was about this time I started playing with Virtual PC on the new machine… to date I've installed XP, BeOS, several flavors of Linux, and Vista… but Vista just didn't really feel right in Virtual PC. So that kinda sucked. And playing with Virtual PC enough, you might find something about linking a virtual hard drive to a physical device.

Much later this got me thinking… “I wonder if I could trick the Vista into installing onto the physical hardware from the Virtual Machine…?” Well, it turns out it's not that easy, but the problem solving adventure had just begun– the wheels were turning, and a few ideas had popped into my mind, and some opportunities has presented themselves.

It's funny what you can do with free2) software nowadays…

Here's what I've come up with by backtracking the way I've successful installed Vista.

You will need a two computers for this method, but there are also possible alternative methods you may try as well.

I'll be calling the PC you want Vista on the target PC, the PC you use to set everything up the other PC, and the virtualized PC will be called the virtual PC. (Which will be hosted on the other PC.)

You'll also need a CD Burner and blank CD, needed to burn an ISO on your other PC.

As stated before, everything you can get is essentially free, and it's legal of course. You'll be downloading all of this software on the other PC. You won't necessarily be installing it directly onto the other PC though.

• Vista RC Beta 2 is free (though time limited) upon resitration and validation, possibly still available via this link.
  • I believe their beta program has ended, so you may have to wait for the official release.
• A Windows XP Image is free upon validation, available via this link.

• Virtual PC 2007 Beta is free upon registration and validation, available via this link.
  • Alternatively, Virtual PC 2004 is free, and available via this link.

• Acronis True Image is free for 15 days, and available via this link.
• The File Splitter is free, and available via this link.

Please note, if any of these sites decide to take down their downloads, please don't contact me asking for files.

I'll assume you've acquired all the software above.

1. Install the Virtual PC flavor of your choice on your other PC.
   • I'll assume you're using Virtual PC 2007 from here on in; 2004 is similar, but not exactly the same.
2. Install the Windows XP image (it's a virtual hard drive for Virtual PC.) I believe this will end up in your “My Documents/My Virtual Machines” directory. (Or you can put it there.)

You'll need two Virtual Machine profiles– one to install vista onto, and one to create the Vista backup image.

So first create the profile for Vista:

1. Start Virtual PC, and create a “New Virtual Machine” via their wizard.
   1. Choose Create Virtual Machine, then click Next.
   2. You can choose a name, say “Vista”, put it in its own folder, then click Next.
   3. Choose Windows Vista (or XP) as the operating system, then click Next.
   4. Choose Use the recommended RAM, then click Next.
   5. Choose An new virtual hard disk, then click Next.
   6. Vista takes about 6 gigs of hard drive space; I suggest you put 10240 (that's 10 gigs), then click Next.
   7. Click Finish.

You may as well create the profile for XP (we use this to backup Vista):

1. Start Virtual PC, and create a “New Virtual Machine” via their wizard.
   1. Choose Create Virtual Machine, then click Next.
   2. You can choose a name, say “XP”, put it in its own folder, then click Next.
   3. Choose Windows XP as the operating system, then click Next.
   4. Choose Adjusting the RAM, and enter at least 256 MB, then click Next.
   5. Choose An existing virtual hard disk, then click Next.
   6. Browse for the Windows XP image, then click Next.
   7. Click Finish.
   8. Select this profile from the Virtual PC Console, and click Settings.
      1. Click Hard Disk 2, then click Virtual hard disk file, and browse to the Vista image.

Start up the Vista profile for Virtual PC. This will take somewhere between 45 minutes and forever, requires some user interaction at some points, you know the drill… but we're not going to let the installation completely finish, read on.

We're going to stop Vista here. At this point, everything's been loaded off the CD, and the system is finally ready to start “for real.”

It may or may not be necessary to do it at this point, but I figured this would be the best place since this is the part where it starts setting up users, and before it goes nuts trying to resolve hardware.

From here on in we'll be using the Windows XP image for Virtual PC. You'll probably be pleasantly surprised that it already has the Virtual Machine Additions installed, so it'll run much faster than Installing Vista did (and you'll be able to drag and drop files onto the desktop and back as well which will save time.)

1. So now start up your Windows XP Virtual Machine that we set up earlier.
2. One you're at the desktop, drag and drop the Acronis True Image installer onto the Virtual PC desktop.
   1. Install the program, choose a Complete installation and accept the default options.
3. Go to the start menu, choose Run and type: c:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImage.exe
   1. Click Try Now
   2. Near the bottom right of the window, you'll see an option to Create Bootable Rescue Media, click it.
      1. A wizard will start up… click next.
      2. Make sure all the checkboxes are selected on the second page, click next.
      3. Choose ISO Image, click next.
      4. Make sure to save the file to the desktop.
      5. Click Proceed, and it will create a relatively small, bootable ISO file.
4. Drag it from the Virtual PC desktop to your actual desktop.
5. At some point burn the bootable ISO onto a CD to use later.

Next we'll actually backup Vista.

1. Start by choosing the Backup option from True Image.
   1. Choose My Computer, click next.
   2. Unselect Disk 1, and select Disk 2.
   3. A warning dialog comes up, click OK.
   4. Choose a location for your backup– I suggest the desktop. Click next.
   5. Choose Create a new full backup, and click next.
   6. Choose Set the options manually, and click next.
   7. A menu on the left will appear
      1. Compression level : Select NONE
      2. Backup Priority: Select High
      3. Then click next.
   8. Click next, then proceed.

Your backup will start. It will take roughly 45 minutes or so depending on your other PC's speed.

It turns out to be alot of trouble to transfer a file bigger than 2.0 gig from Virtual PC. For some reason trying to copy such a large file from Virtual PC will result in an error or corrupt file no matter what method you try, so you have to come up with an alternative.

So one strategy is to split the file into safely transferrable chunks and rejoin it later– here's where The File Splitter comes in handy.

1. Drag and Drop The File Splitter onto the Virtual PC desktop.
2. Install The File Splitter with default options, and make sure “Launch” is checked.
   1. Click the first Browse button, choose the backup file (should still be on the desktop.)
      • This will fill in the destination directory as well.
   2. For Size of pieces choose Custom size… and put 768, and choose MB.
      • It should calculate the size as roughly seven file pieces.
   3. Click Split and wait for the process to finish. You'll see seven new files on the desktop, along with a “Create_…” executable.
3. One by one click and drag them to your network folder on your computer.
4. You're done with Virtual PC, so you can shut it down.
5. Run the “Create_…” executable to rejoin the file into one piece.

Load the True Image backup disc on the target PC. Once you see the boot menu, choose the second Option, Acronis True Image Home(Full version. It takes a little while longer, but it has network support, which you'll need.

This step is not optional– Once the main interface loads, goto the Tools menu and choose Options. You'll see a menu on the left; expand Network adapters, pick your network card there (hopefully it's listed), and ensure the network options are correct. Once you hit OK, the software will connect you to your network.

Now pick the Recovery option, a dialog will show up, click Next. For the file name, you'll want to type in the location on your network where the backed up vista is. The easiest way is to get the IP address of the other PC; open a command prompt on the other PC and type:

ipconfig /all

You'll see your IP address there. So go to the target PC and put in for the file name:

\\x.x.x.x\directory\backup.tib

• x.x.x.x is the address of the other PC, for instance 192.168.2.2
• directory is the name of the shared directory, for instance share
• backup.tib is of course the backup file you created before.

1. Once you're set, click Next.
2. You'll see a dialog with a few checkboxes; one next to “Disk x”, one next to “NTFS”, and one next to “MBR and track 0”. Personally I chose “NTFS” only, but this is only because I had Windows XP on the laptop previous to this; you may need to choose “MBR and track 0” as well. But it probably shouldn't matter either way.
3. Select a partition– just choose the first one, click Next.
4. Choose “Active”, click Next.
5. Now you have the option of expanding the image to fit the whole disk. I suggest you choose “0 bytes” for the “before” and “after” portions, and simply put a number larger than your hard drive capacity in the middle and hit tab– it'll get adjusted properly.
6. Just click next, next, next… until it starts backing up. It took about 35 minutes to finish for me.
7. Once it finishes just close the window and the system will reboot. Remove the CD when you get a chance.

Now your system will start up, most likely telling you that Windows didn't start correctly, like the below picture. Vista seems to use a different font than XP for console stuff, so it's a good sign.

Just choose “Start Normally” and the Vista will start to finalize everything. You should be at the point where it's asking you for users to add, time, etc. Once it finally starts up, you'll see it frantically adding hardware devices and looking for updates online.

Here's the result, Windows Vista RC 2 running on an older laptop with an unsupported BIOS. Click it for a larger view.

What you'll notice is that although “Aero Glass” is non-functional (due to an older video card I'd imagine), the “Gadgets Bar” is actually present (something you won't see in Virtual PC.)

Surprisingly it's very responsive, and it doesn't do so badly for performance ratings either.

Note: I have not tried these methods, but they may work.

1. Install on a working machine, and simply image the hard drive and install onto your target machine. But then you'll have it on two machines instead of just one.
2. Use something like BartPE and make your own boot disc, somehow loading Virtual PC on it. Then run Virtual PC with a virtual hard drive that's “linked” to your physical drive, and install Vista via the Virtual Machine. In theory you should at some point be able to simply boot into Vista.
   • I had attemped this method, but I could not get Virtual PC to work with BartPE.
3. Microsoft also provides something called the Windows AIK for free (which is similar to BartPE), but I get the feeling you'd have the same problems as you would with the standard installer.

I'm kind of interested in other working alternatives; if you have one that works, post it on the discussion page.

So there you have it; I hope it's an easier process for you than it was for me. Overall I think it was nice to find you can get over a little speed bump such as a fussy installer using completely free and legal methods.

So good luck!