Install Windows98 in VirtualPC 7 on an OS X 10.5 PowerPC
Dec 04, '09 07:30:00AM
Contributed by: jigzat
I still have my good ol' trusty Imac G4, and still love it and use it every day (you know I can't afford a new one). I had the need to install a few apps that are not available for Mac OS X, so I reinstalled VirtualPC 7 (VPC7) and shook the dust off my old Windows 98 disk.
However, I found out that although I could install VPC7 under Leopard, I couldn't use CDs, DVDs, or even disk images to install Windows98. So then I tried Q-[kju:], but it was impossible to use -- it kept crashing, there was no network, no file sharing, and it was impossibly slow.
There was no apparent way to fix the installing issues with Windows98, so then I thought to copy the contents of the Windows98 CD into a VirtualPC image. However, I then couldn't find a way to mount the .vhdp image. After struggling for two days, I was about to quit until I found out that .vhdp images are basically a bundle with an alias and a standard .vhd image inside. With that in mind, it was finally possible to install Windows98:
- First create an empty fixed-size virtual hard drive with the VirtualPC assistant. In my case, it was a 1GB drive.
- In Finder, Control-click on the newly-created hard drive and select Show Package Contents from the pop-up menu. You will see two files: one alias named MainPackageFile, and a vhd file named BaseDrive.
- Move BaseDrive to the Desktop (or just leave it where it is), then mount it by dragging BaseDrive onto the left side of the Disk Utility window (where the disks and drives are listed). Finally, click on the Mount button in the tool bar.
- Copy the contents of the Windows98 CD onto the mounted drive. When the copy finishes, unmount the drive.
- If you moved the drive to the Desktop, as I did, just move it back into the bundle. Otherwise, continue on.
- Create a new PC in VPC7, and assign the virtual hard drive to the second bay of the PC.
- Boot from the floppy disk, and install from the hard drive. Remember it must be from a different drive than the target disk (C:).
If you try with XP or other OSes, please let me know how it goes.
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