Microsoft KB Archive/831505

= Cannot format a FAT16 virtual hard disk to NTFS in a Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition guest operating system =

Article ID: 831505

Article Last Modified on 3/4/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Virtual PC 2004

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SYMPTOMS
When you try to format a FAT16 virtual hard disk to the NTFS file system, either while you are installing the Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition guest operating system to Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, or by using the Convert utility, the formatting may be very slow and may eventually fail.



CAUSE
This issue occurs because Virtual PC 2004 does not support Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition as a guest operating system. You may be able to install Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition as a guest operating system, but you may not be able to fully use all the features of the operating system.



WORKAROUND
To work around this issue, use another virtual machine to format the virtual hard disk to NTFS, and then install Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition to that disk. To do so, follow these steps:
 * 1) Install a virtual machine that supports NTFS (such as Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows NT 4.0), and then shut down the virtual machine.
 * 2) In the Virtual PC Console, click the virtual machine that supports NTFS, and then click Settings.
 * 3) In the left pane, click Hard Disk 2, and then in the right pane, click Virtual hard disk file.
 * 4) Click Browse, locate the virtual hard disk (.vhd) that you want to convert to NTFS, select the virtual hard disk that you want to convert, click Open, and then click OK to save the changes.
 * 5) Start the virtual machine that supports NTFS, open My Computer, right-click the virtual hard disk that you want to format (it appears as Local Disk D:), and then click Format.
 * 6) In the Format Local Disk dialog box, click NTFS in the File system box, and then click Start.

Warning You will lose all the data on the virtual hard disk.
 * 1) After the format has completed, click Turn off and save changes on the virtual machine that supports NTFS, and then click to select the Commit changes to the virtual hard disk check box.
 * 2) In the Virtual PC Console, click the virtual machine that supports NTFS, and then click Settings.
 * 3) In the left pane, click Hard Disk 2 (the virtual disk that you converted to NTFS), click None in the right pane, and then click OK to save the changes.
 * 4) Restart the installation of Windows NT Server 4.0 Terminal Server Edition to the NTFS virtual hard disk.



MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft fully supports the following operating systems in a virtual machine on Virtual PC 2004: Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows NT 4.0 Workstation, Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, MS-DOS, IBM OS/2 Warp Version 4 Fix Pack 15, IBM OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 1, and IBM OS/2 Warp Convenience Pack 2.

For more information about Virtual PC 2004, visit the following Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Product Information Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

Keywords: kbinfo KB831505

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