If you don't have a real x64 system I suggest you use bochs until you acquire the real thing. On this page I will explain how to setup bochs for our testing purposes.

I based these instructions on the information coming from the following two sites :

http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/12/06/1531221&from=rss
http://www.osdever.net/tutorials/bochs/bochs.php?the_id=66

The instructions have only been verified to work with Bochs 2.1.1 for Windows.

1) Download bochs 2.1.1 from sourceforge.

2) Install it

3) Run Bochs (bochs.exe)

4) Select  "Restore factory default configuration" (option 1)

5) Select "Edit options" (option 3)

6) Select "Memory options" (option 6)

7) Select "Name of VGA BIOS image" (option 2)

8) Type "VGABIOS-lgpl-latest" and press ENTER

9) Select "Name of ROM BIOS image" (option 3)

10) Type "BIOS-bochs-latest" and press ENTER

11) Select "Return to previous menu" (option 0)

12) Select "Disk options" (option 8)

13) Select "Floppy disk 0" (option 1)

14) Type "c:\wannebe\floppy.img" and press ENTER

15) Type "1.44M" and press ENTER

16) Type "inserted" and press ENTER

17) Select "Return to previous menu" (option 0)

18) Select "Return to previous menu" (option 0)

19) Select "Save options to ..." (option 4)

20) Type "wannebe.cfg" and press ENTER

21) Select "Quit now" (option 6)

We have now created a configuration file for use with Bochs that will load a floppy disk image called "floppy.img" and that is placed in a directory "\wannebe" on the "c:"-drive.

 

In order to test the virtual disk file we will do this

1) Run Bochs (bochs.exe)

2) Select  "Read options from ..." (option 2)

3) Type "wannebe.cfg" and press ENTER

4) Select "Begin simulation" (option 5)