Help needed - Server 2008 R2 or not

skysparkles

Hi all,

I am about to work on the 680 and 685 exams to get MCITP Enterprise Desktop Support Tech qualification and need to build the labs. Unfortunatley, my desktop and laptop both run Win XP Pro 32bit I've tried Virtual PC and Virtual Box and neither will load the 64 bit OS for the lab despite both PC's being 64bit compatible (I think). Anyways I'm fast running out of time and was going to install the Win 7 32 bit and Server 2008 32 bit which is unfortunately not going to be R2 as my books suggest - I've hear there are lots of differences between Win Server 2008 and R2 - is this the case? And if so is it still possible to pass the exams without R2???

ally_uk

I would Say don't cut corners and install R2, you will be more prepared when faced with R2 related questions and more importantly you will be bang up to date in terms of knowledge which will mean on the job you will be able to perform in R2 related situations

cyberguypr

Agree. 70-680 is not an easy test. Anything you can do to augment the probability of passing should be done. What are the hardware specs of your system? Are you positive VT support is activated in the BIOS?

BTW, welcome to the forum.

divinestriker

Check your BIOS to make sure Virtualization Technology (VT) is enabled, sometimes called hardware virtualization. If you do not have this setting, you may need a BIOS upgrade, or your system may not be 64bit capable, depending on the age.

Also, Virtual PC does not support 64bit guests, VirtualBox would be your better choice.

skysparkles

Thanks for the welcome and help so far ...

My Desktop is a Dell Optiplex 760 - Pheonix ROM BIOS Plus Version 1.10. A03 - CPU: Pentium Dual Core E5200 @2.50GHz with 1498MB Ram

My Laptop is a Dell Latitude E5500 - Pheonix ROM BIOS Plus Version 1.10A11 - CPU Intel Core Duo T7250 @2.00 GHz with 2004MB Ram

I've already turned on the Virtualisation in the BIOS on both PC's (I think) - the desktop bios said something like Virtualisation for i/o - not sure about this as this was a new thing for me.

Even when using VirtualBox I get an error about it being a 64 bit install but the machine is not compatible - not sure if there is a definitive way of checking if the hardware will be compatible with 64bit or not - how I came to the conclusion that it ?should? work on both was looking up the processors - both said they were Intel 64 compliant and running the Windows 7 Upgrade advisor which on both PC's advised that Windows 7 64 bit could be installed?

divinestriker

The Desktop E5200 does not support VT, but does support 64bit O/S. (Which means you can install Win7 64bit as a host, but you cannot install 64bit guests)
Intel® Pentium® Processor E5200 (2M Cache, 2.50 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
Look at Intel Virtualization Technology: No

The laptop however, does support 64bit guest O/S.

Intel® Core?2 Duo Processor T7250 (2M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB)
Intel Virtualization Technology: Yes

You will want to update the BIOS for the laptop, as you are a couple revisions behind, and some important updates have been done since your revision (Windows 7 support being one of them).
Drivers and Downloads

After upgrading the BIOS, press F2 to enter the BIOS settings and use the mouse to expand Virtualization Support. Click Virtualization to select it. Use the mouse to place a check mark in the box labeled Enable Intel Virtualization Technology, the click apply. Now click exit and start the computer.

Again, I checked this on a Latitude E5500 running BIOS revision A16, so you may not have these settings until you update the BIOS.