Your Server

Is there a MCSA guru out there? Can I install windows 2003 server on a laptop?

Is 1 gig of memory enough? Hello: Is 1 gig of memory enough? I order the MCSA books to study on my own for the test. I think I can dedicate up to 40 hours a week for study and practice. My lab will consist of a server (laptop) a printer, and 2 desktop. “Only if I can get all of them to work together” A few questions: 1.Is it a good idea to use my laptop as my server? 2.Is a gig of memory enough to run server 2003 smoothly? 3.Currently my laptop is running XP: can I run XP and server 2k3 safely on my laptop without having problems or having the computer run slowly? 4.What should I know before loading server 2k3 to my laptop, is it a good idea to have 2 OS running on my laptop? 5.Any suggestions? 6.Is 6 months enough time to be certified? 7.is 40 hours a week of study and practice anough?

Public Comments

1. Yeah, it will run fine. You should partition your drive so that when you work on Windows 2003 server you will not screw up anything on your regular operating system. Just make sure your hard drive is big enough. 6 months and 40 hours a week of study will be enough.
2. All I know is you don't want to run a Windows OS on a server. I recommend Linux. Fedora has some server utilities that are fairly easy to figure out.
3. Yes, you can install it on a laptop if you meet the hardware requirements. Personally, I would leave your laptop OS alone and virtualize Server 03. You can get VMWare Server for free from their site and install Server on your laptop that way without actually wiping out the current system you have. Here are the answers to your other questions: 1. If you have the right hardware it is fine if you will be using it just for studying/testing. If you need a full time DC then no, it's not a good idea since you will need to have it on all the time. 2. A gig is decent but I would use at least 2GB, but it all depends on what you will be using it for. 3. If it's XP it would be better to wipe it out or virtualize the server to run on top of XP. 4. You can run two OS on your laptop but I would not recommend it since one will be a server and one will be a client os. 6. Six months is more than enough time but it all depends on your study habits. 7. Yes, it's more than enough.
4. I guess it's time for me to answer your worries again huh? LOL. Well, I'm glad you've lowered your target to MCSA instead of MCSE. All right time for answers. You are going to run server 2003 for practice. You are not running it for a real production environment. You won't really have too much to worry about. First of all, I still run server 2003 to test some concepts out on my "practice" pcs. Not being rich, I have old pcs that are 733mhz, 196mb ram! Server 2003 runs on these machines. Granted that it is not blazing fast, it's adequate for practice. What might take 1-3 seconds on a fast pc takes about 5-15 seconds on my pcs. Really, is that many seconds too much for you? If you want to know how well or bad your pcs will run server 2003 then do two things. Go to MS site and see the minimum requirements for server 2003 and compare it with your pcs. Then install it on 1 pc. See how it runs. As for whether it's safe to install server on your laptop with xp, yes it is. I did the same when I was studying for the test. The only problem you may have is that your HD may only be partitioned into 1 drive. This is a no go since all OSes require a separate partition. Meaning, if you want to have 2 OSes you need at least 2 partitions. If your whole drive is just one "letter" then you won't have the option to set up server in it unless you want to delete your current xp on it. I believe I answered your last questions in the previous post.