Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Running a 64-bit guest in 32-bit host

Just tried something new – I needed to setup a virtual image for a 64-bit Windows Server 2008 on my laptop which is still running 32-bit Windows XP as a guest host OS. Luckily VMWare Workstation 6.0 (or higher) to the rescue – which allows you to do just this. If you want to know if your hardware supports 64-bit, go to the VMWare Drivers & Tools section where you will find a processor check for 64-bit compatibility.

Then the next hurdle – you will need support for Intel Virtualization Technology. My portable a Lenovo T61 supports this but it is disabled by default. So you need to go into the BIOS and enable this – go to Config>CPU section in your BIOS Setup Utility to do this. Next power off your machine and boot it up again. Now it should work (a simple restart did not seem to do the trick)

PS To check if your Intel processor supports VT check out Compare the Intel Xeon Processor Family – you will see Intel Virtualization Technology listed next to Other Intel Technologies.

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P.S. Thanks Cassy for pointing out the mistake …

1 comment:

Cassy said...

I think you confused "guest" and "host". In the title it is fine, but in your tekst it should be:
... which is still running 32-bit Windows XP as a HOST OS ...