I am just 7 weeks into an intensive Drupal course (about 60 hours a week!); so my errors setting up QS are probably not the norm; though they may save others from repeating them.
The first step is to upgrade if you have less than 4GB of RAM. The virtual environment needs 1024MB (@1GB).
Second, following the videos and setup node worked like a champ; it seemed to run a little slower than my UniServer system; never-the-less I was so excited about that success I wanted to repeat it on both of my laptops, a Windows 7 and an XP. I was warned by a fellow student about 64-bit issues, so I used the 32-bit installation on both*. Then I wanted to compare the performance of the installation on an SD card versus the HD (I did not see any appreciable improvement using the SD card.) I could have stopped there and had a happy story; but both of my laptops already had a Linux partition (Ubuntu 12.04); so I also installed QS onto the Linux partitions (yes, virtual Ubuntu on real Ubuntu). So far so good because I first installed QS onto the root drive; it worked great in Linux. Then in my insanity; and the pursuit of perfection, I wanted to see if using an SD card in Linux would speed things up. This was the same CD card the other partition was using for QS in Windows!*** For some reason when my first laptop crashed I repeated this offense on my other laptop (the reason may be stupidity). On my XP computer the Linux partition was corrupted; on my Win7 system I totally lost the Linux partition (I had to wipe that computer, restoring the factory ghost image.)****
It just so happens that all of this occurred about the time of the October 2012 roll-out of an updated QS. I mention that only because by the time I rebuilt both laptops the update was available, which I am now using.
This time I installed the 64-bit version on the 64-bit system (Win7); got a message that i need to set up VM (virtual mode) in my BIOS, which was easily done (now that I know my computer's innards intimately) and the installation succeeded (on the HD; I'm shying away from SD cards for a while). I did see a significant performance improvement going to 64-bit mode from 32-bit mode.
*first mistake: if your computer is 64-bit, use the 64-bit install.
** second mistake: stop while you are ahead!
*** 3rd mistake: you can never, never share an SD card across partitions!!
**** a great learning experience if you have a week to spare reloading everything.
I would say that I am very happy with my VB/QS development environment. Some other newcomers may find the notes below helpful:
My Notes on Quickstart, VirtualBox and Drush Setup:
Quickstart site
http://drupal.org/project/quickstart
Watch 2 videos:
this one will explain setting up VirtualBox on Win7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6kOXTDReVw&feature=plcp
this one shows how to create a Drupal site in VB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjPCrMcZutE&feature=plcp
note that you can modify the make file to include your favorite assortment of modules up front rather than downloading and installing them all from scratch
Open the d7.make file in the websites folder (on the desktop) and add the modules views and ctools (needed for views) in the format shown below and save the modified file.
core = 7.x
api = 2
projects[drupal][type] = core
projects[] = views (add)
projects[] = ctools (add)
(thus you can pre-load all of your favorite modules by modifying this make file!)
From the bash terminal command line (Ubuntu in VB) type:
cd websites/
ls
drush qc all –makefile=./d7.make –domain=test.dev
cd test.dev
drush dl devel
drush en devel
{from a Web brouser, enter test.dev/
{you should see a new Drupal 7 site in the Web browser}
log on and PW are admin, admin
Build you site.