Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

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Monos
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Joined: 28. Mar 2022, 10:54

Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by Monos »

I saved the state of my Windows XP VM. Today a client came in and i needed to access stuff from 2014 so i jumped on VirtualBox to launch my Windows XP.. The loaded saved state instantly crashed and now i've been trying to boot it for an hour.
I haven't touched anything. How can it just break on it's own!? And i got no idea what to do about this.

Or I did touch one thing. I moved the folder with the VHD to another drive, launched the VM. Got an error, created a symbolic link and it started just to crash instantly. Have now moved the VHD back to it's original location to no avail.

Anybody got ideas? I'm running windows 10 and the newest version of VBox



I've tried loading the old copies of the XP install to go back to the purest form of this system i have access to. The copy wouldn't boot either.


Asrock Taichi + Ryzen 3900x
mpack
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Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by mpack »

Saved states are designed to launch a VM quickly, provided nothing important has changed. I imagine a lot of things about your PC have changed since 2014.

Right click the VM and discard the saved state. In this day and age saved state is almost worthless: keep the VM on an SSD and it will start up just as quickly without a saved state.

p.s. VHD is itself an error prone format. It's a pity you chose that.
Monos
Posts: 7
Joined: 28. Mar 2022, 10:54

Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by Monos »

mpack wrote:Saved states are designed to launch a VM quickly, provided nothing important has changed. I imagine a lot of things about your PC have changed since 2014.

Right click the VM and discard the saved state. In this day and age saved state is almost worthless: keep the VM on an SSD and it will start up just as quickly without a saved state.

p.s. VHD is itself an error prone format. It's a pity you chose that.

I'm an audio engineer, the project is from 2014. The VM was created this year. Tested and used to open superold projects. Wanted to do the same again today and it won't boot nomatter what i try to do.
The VM was created on this machine.

It is on an SSD.

Which format should I have chosen if i were to do it again?
But why would the images work and then suddently not work. Even the copies i've made of the backup which haven't been touched won't boot.

(It's a old windows 10 install virtualized to use with the new studio computer, it was working fine 4 months ago)
mpack
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Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by mpack »

Please provide a VM log file. Make sure the VM is fully shut down, then right click it in the manager UI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.
Which format should I have chosen if i were to do it again?
You should use Dynamic VDI, the native VirtualBox format. VHD is a poorly designed format from 2007. If it didn't have Microsoft propping it up it would have died a deserved death long ago. And even MS have abandoned VHD, replacing it with VHDX - similar name but an entirely different format.
Monos
Posts: 7
Joined: 28. Mar 2022, 10:54

Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by Monos »

The Log is to big and I can't post links.
Removed a bit of information because the file was to big. Hopefully I didn't delete the usefull info. :( I just randomly picked what didn't look neccesarry

(mod edit: deleted unzipped partial log)
scottgus1
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Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by scottgus1 »

Monos wrote:The Log is to big and I can't post links.
mpack wrote:save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.
:wink:
Please try again.
Monos
Posts: 7
Joined: 28. Mar 2022, 10:54

Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by Monos »

VBox.rar
(24.98 KiB) Downloaded 10 times
I put in in a rar file now. Here it is :)
mpack
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Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by mpack »

00:00:02.258718 HM: HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM: AMD-V is not available
00:00:02.289800 NEM: info: Found optional import WinHvPlatform.dll!WHvQueryGpaRangeDirtyBitmap.
00:00:02.289853 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeHypervisorPresent is TRUE, so this might work...
You have Hyper-v enabled, probably by a recent update, or because you experimented with Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.

See HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active).

In other news:
  • You don't have the Extension Pack installed. The host extension pack is needed if you might want to use USB or vRDP.
  • You have files for one VM scattered over a number of folders. This is asking for trouble because it makes the VM difficult to back up, and I hope it isn't to allow one disk to be directly shared by multiple VMs!
  • I see the Guest Additions ISO mounted in a virtual CD drive, but I see no evidence that you ever actually installed the GAs. This means you will be missing mouse integration, accelerated graphics and shared folders.
Monos
Posts: 7
Joined: 28. Mar 2022, 10:54

Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by Monos »

mpack wrote:
00:00:02.258718 HM: HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM: AMD-V is not available
00:00:02.289800 NEM: info: Found optional import WinHvPlatform.dll!WHvQueryGpaRangeDirtyBitmap.
00:00:02.289853 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeHypervisorPresent is TRUE, so this might work...
You have Hyper-v enabled, probably by a recent update, or because you experimented with Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.

See HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active).
I DID experiment with Windows Subsystem for Linux. Wow, thank you. I'll see if I can fix it :)

"Error: 0x800f080c

Feature name Microsoft-Hyper-V is unknown.
A Windows feature name was not recognized."
Last edited by Monos on 30. Mar 2022, 14:29, edited 1 time in total.
mpack
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Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by mpack »

You responded while I was still composing. See changes to my last post above.
Monos
Posts: 7
Joined: 28. Mar 2022, 10:54

Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by Monos »

mpack wrote:You responded while I was still composing. See changes to my last post above.
Which Extention Pack?

Sidenote. I google how to remove the linux subsystem thing. And i'm trying it now.
Monos
Posts: 7
Joined: 28. Mar 2022, 10:54

Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by Monos »

mpack wrote:You responded while I was still composing. See changes to my last post above.
Oh thank you so much! Deleting all traces of WSL fixed the issue. I'm back in it!
Thank you man, whoever you are! You saved my ass there! <3
mpack
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Re: Windows XP VM won't boot anymore

Post by mpack »

I would be surprised if removing WSL really fixes the issue. Once the NEM feature is enabled I doubt it ever gets disabled silently. You can easily check by looking for the log file line referenced in the FAQ (and highlighted in red above). Or look for the green tortoise symbol on the status line of the running VM. NEM being present won't always stop the VM from running, but AFAIK it will always make it perform poorly.
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