Tried to run XP on VBox installed on Windows 10 - failed

[JayBen]

Hi

Hope you can help. I tried to run XP on VBox installed on Windows 10.
This was after having problems trying to instal XP direct to partition.
I have spent the past week looking for answers as to why I cannot get XP to run.
I have an Official version of Windows XP Professional incl serial number.

In the first instance I got problems with it not find the ‘Boot Medium’ System halted!
Eventually I go the VBox to to run XP starting and seemed to be unwrapping from the CD and I thought success. This was short lived because it got to the DOS page saying read the terms of use and click F8. This I did but it returned a screen saying “Set-up could not read the CD you inserted”.
This is confusing because how does it extract information from THIS CD and then find it cant read it ?

So I have tried ‘Ticking and unticking Pass Through’ and adding the same Windows installation on USB as an ISO but that isn't recognised either directly or as a 2nd choice.

So what am I doing wrong ?

[scottgus1]

It is possible Hyper-V is enabled.

Start the guest from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the guest from within the guest OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the guest with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the guest in the main Virtualbox window's guest list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log. Search the log for these words:

Attempting fall back to NEM

If these words are in your guest's vbox.log, Hyper-V is enabled. See HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active)

If these words are not present, zip the vbox.log, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

[JayBen]

Thanks for replying - I am sorry to be so dumb on this but I don’t see phrase /word ‘guest’ anywhere. Nor Save-state unless you meant Save machine State.

Looking for “Attempting fall back to NEM” doesn’t appear.
It says UseNEMinstead.
[/NEM/] (level 1)
PROFCPU0/EM/NEMExec
PROFCPU0/EM/NEMExecCalled

I also don’t see anywhere that allows me to enable Hyper-V and no mention of it in the log.

Attached is the file

[scottgus1]

'Guest' is the term the forum uses for the Virtual Machine. 'Host' is what we call the physical PC.

Hyper-V is off and is not inhibiting Virtualbox, good.

Your host is having trouble with Dropbox, OneDrive, and a program called Open-Shell. These programs have dll's that are failing Virtualbox hardening checks. I don't know if these troubles are causing your guest to not read your CD. Ignore this for now.

You are apparently using the physical CD drive. CDs and the drives can have troubles that make them work in some parts of the CD but not others. Try two things:
1. Get an ISO maker program, like free ImgBurn, to make a verified (*) ISO of the XP installer CD, then try the VM booting from the ISO instead of the physical CD. ( * verified: ImgBurn, at least, will check the ISO it makes to see if the ISO matches the CD bit-for-bit. Whatever program you use, enable this verification step.)

2. Try a Linux download ISO, like Ubuntu Desktop or Mint, in a different VM. You don't have to keep the VM, just see if the Linux ISO installs fully and boots up.

[mpack]

I don’t see phrase /word ‘guest’ anywhere.

I suggest chapter 1 of the user manual. Section 1.2 in particular should be a big help.

The user manual is available online (per the links), in the F1 help, and as a PDF in the VirtualBox program folder.

[JayBen]

Thanks for explaining the terms 'Guest' & 'Host' and confirming Hyper-V is off and is not inhibiting Virtualbox.
I am a bit dyslexic so reading and understanding is more of an issue than most people.

There is confusion on my part because my logic says that if the MS Windows genuine CD of WinXP Professional is interogated and seems to start to load through Vbox, it should continue past the acceptance of the license terms. And at that point is wont move onward.

Things that I didn’t include on first submission here were.
• I have tried to insert MS Windows genuine CD of WinXP Professional direct at start up but it was ignored!
• I found the BIOS boot order was direct to HD so changed it to the typical order of CD, USB and then HD.
• I have tried again to insert MS Windows genuine CD of WinXP Professional direct at start up and it started to load but then came up with the screen saying it could not continue as continuing would damage my computer. Suspecting a Virus or other such things!
• I tried another Windows program 98 in Vbox and eventually started and seemed to instal, looked ok but it did not show the CD drive. I tried ro use Virtual Windows to instal new hardware and got the icons but they would not work/ show the CD in the drive.
• I used InfraRecorder to make ISO’s from the MS Windows genuine CD of WinXP Professional – even polishing scratches out of it to ensure it was ok. This was burnt to CD and also to a USB.
• The CD ISO with MS Windows genuine WinXP Professional was not recognised.
• The USB ISO with MS Windows genuine WinXP Professional was not recognised.
• I went into the USB and removed any hidden files so the ISO was the only thing on the USB and it was not recognised.
• I suspected that there were corrupt files on windows start-up so used the windows tool in advanced settings to ‘Repair’. Still no joy.
• Initially the idea was to use a formatted partition called WinXP and load straight to that and use EasyBCD but when that failed partly through the CD of MS Windows genuine WinXP Professional, I turned to Vbox.
• I then tried the ISO in another computer with XP on it and it did NOT recognise the ISO.
I am starting to suspect that there may be a problem with the boot loader but as I understand it, this has been changed in Windows 10 so its nothing like old systems of 98, XP, or Win7.
I already have one computer with XP and Win10 on but that is used for Music only.
I have 2 Dell computers, the same, that were Win7 and were upgraded by MS to Win10.

Following your suggestions.
In task Manager, I stopped Dropbox.
I did not see OneDrive in task Manager so must be working in the background
I did not stop Open-Shell
I then proceeded to download ImgBurn, and made the ISO.
I reformatted the USB to clear it of all hidden files and then loaded the new ISO and tried that. The result was that Vbox came up with Fatal Error on boot.

If you mean checking “the ISO matches the CD bit-for-bit” then I have 12 items in CD and ISO ….so correct.
I tried Linux Mint downloaded ISO I couldn’t verify it as it was too complicated.
Both Mint and burnt XP Pro files from CD with ImgBurn to ISO and confirmed bootable.
Did not designate USB in Settings so did that but it made no difference – Fatal error.

Enclosed save file after all this. I am beginning to think that there is something badly corrupted or I am doing something wrong!

[scottgus1]

Virtualbox BIOS boot, the only kind XP will understand, cannot boot from USB. Don't bother putting anything on a USB stick.

If you mean checking “the ISO matches the CD bit-for-bit” then I have 12 items in CD and ISO ….so correct.

No, I mean to use the Verify option in ImgBurn after you make the ISO from the XP CD. It will re-read the CD and compare to the ISO and be sure the CD was read the same twice. Note that if the same error from scratches is read the same twice, ImgBurn will not be able to tell that the data is bad and will confirm a bad read of the disk as good.

my logic says that if the MS Windows genuine CD of WinXP Professional is interogated and seems to start to load through Vbox, it should continue past the acceptance of the license terms. And at that point is wont move onward.

even polishing scratches out of it to ensure it was ok

A scratched CD has lots of areas where there are no scratches, so data wouldn't be affected where there are no scratches. But that one spot where the scratch is can affect the data. Just like a scratched record does produce sound while the needle is reading areas that are not scratched.
In addition, the side that often gets scratched is not the side that contains the data. The other side with the foil contains the data. if a scratch happens on the foil side, then no amount of polishing will get rid of that scratch.
So if the F8 part is not scratched but the installer part is, then you will get the result you have.

it could not continue as continuing would damage my computer.

It could be possible that the installer started to put things in the VM but could not continue, and the next run of the installer recognized these installed items and warned that an existing install might get overwritten. This is normal. Start a new XP guest.

If your XP CD is damaged it will not be usable as an installer for the VM. Try asking a friend if they have an XP CD available. Also check if your CD is really a full XP installer and not a service pack installer. Service pack installers don't install the full OS and are not bootable.

I suggest you get a friend who is computer-savvy to help you with this locally. (Bearing in mind the pandemic, be safe!)

Also, read section 1 of the Virtualbox help manual. It explains how to make a VM.