Fatal: No bootable medium found! System halted.

[scottgus1]

Bill's directions are good, except for point 3 below. The "Choose a virtual CD/DVD disc file" is hidden under the little CD icon, as in #3 below.

1. Open the Storage Settings for the guest in the GUI.
2. Select the optical drive (on your SATA port 1).
3. On the right pane of the window, next to the dropdown that says 'SATA Port 1', there's a little CD icon with a dropdown arrow. Click it.
4. Choose "Choose a virtual CD/DVD disc file". Browse to and select your ISO.

Your ISO is now ready to be booted from. Make a good-size vdi and fire it up!

[Tattoo89]

When I go into Settings-->Storage with Windows Virtual.vdi selected, I don't see the CD icon on the right side under Attributes. Nowhere do I see "host drive".

Based on scottgus1's recent response, the hangup occurs when I get to Storage and select the optical drive (SATA Port 1). The CD icon is grayed out, so I am unable to select it. I can't proceed with instructions #3 and 4.

My gut feeling tells me that it might be a memory issue. That is, I may not have set aside enough memory in my initial setup of VirtualBox, so I can't see the ISO file in Storage. I could be wrong about this. Please verify.

It would be better to send you a screenshot of the Storage settings and VM Manager page. Based on what you state below, I have a feeling that it might be another issue. Do you mind sending me your email address via PM ? I can send you the screenshot right away.

As for dlharper's response, it's not a matter of preconceptions or NOT doing what you or others suggest. It's a matter of a mistake and/or misunderstanding on MY part and not being able to proceed with your suggestions. When I initially downloaded the ISO file, it came out to 3.94 GB. I don't see the ISO anywhere in either SATA Port or in Storage at all. The file name I downloaded is as follows: en_windows_10_enterprise_x64_dvd_6851151.iso. I'm assuming this is the correct file based on the .iso file extension. Why it doesn't show that way in Settings-->Storage or in my VM Manager, I don't know.

[mpack]

Shut down the VM if you want to make changes to the settings.

[JeffSure]

A "me too" post. I'm having the same problem that Tattoo89 is having. I've followed the directions to the letter, but still get the "Fatal" error, although I'm not using a downloaded iso file, it's one I created from a DVD here at work.

Screen Shot 2015-09-30 at 2.15.47 PM.jpg (52.91 KiB) Viewed 5781 times

I'm pretty sure I have everything correct. Could the home-brewed iso be the problem?

[loukingjr]

…Could the home-brewed iso be the problem?

Absolutely. the .iso has to be bootable.

[Tattoo89]

Success! I was able to make the necessary changes after powering down the VM. Amazing how something so simple could be the answer.

Thanks to ALL for your patience in dealing with my issues. I appreciate the great advice.

[JeffSure]

…Could the home-brewed iso be the problem?

Absolutely. the .iso has to be bootable.

Thanks. My iso is a copy of a Win 7 install disk, and the IT guy who made it said it should be bootable. I created the iso using Disk Utility and Terminal (and Google) on the Mac. Do you know if that would somehow make it not bootable? I'm using a Mac Pro that doesn't have it's own optical drive, so I need to be able to use the image file. Neither the iso or cdr are working.

[loukingjr]

There are several reasons the .iso may not be bootable. One would be the DVD itself isn't bootable. The IT guy saying "it should be bootable" isn't the same as testing it to see if it really is. Unless the DVD is bootable you'll never be able to make a bootable .iso.

How to make bootable .iso's and or DVD's is beyond the scope of this forum.

[JeffSure]

There are several reasons the .iso may not be bootable. One would be the DVD itself isn't bootable. The IT guy saying "it should be bootable" isn't the same as testing it to see if it really is. Unless the DVD is bootable you'll never be able to make a bootable .iso.

How to make bootable .iso's and or DVD's is beyond the scope of this forum.

I understand that. I didn't ask that. But thanks for your input.

I asked IT about it and we're going to look into it tomorrow.

[loukingjr]

Well asking how it could have been non-bootable isn't much different than making one bootable. Hopefully it will get resolved.

[loukingjr]

@JeffSure. I just thought I would mention a couple things. First make sure the CD is first in the boot order. The other thing is, I know I wasn't going to get into this but, when you image the DVD with Disk Utility, make sure to select DVD/CD Master. Once it's imaged you shouldn't need to do anything other than changing the .cdr extension to .iso. You mentioned using the terminal but I don't know why. You shouldn't have to. If the .iso won't boot then something is up with the DVD. That's all I had to do with my retail Windows 7 disk.

[mpack]

It's very simple, because this error message is never wrong. If you get this error message then no bootable disk is attached to the VM, and I don't care what your IT guy told you. Either the ISO is not attached to the VM (and included in the boot order), or the ISO is not an image of a bootable CD/DVD. Those are the only two possibilities.

[JeffSure]

This morning I received an absolutely, positively bootable iso from IT. Still not working. So I decided to start again from scratch, deleted the VM and created a brand new one, with a new vdi, and that did the trick. Back up and running.

[loukingjr]

Glad it's sorted. Of course there is nothing that can be done if a guest isn't set up correctly. Apparently the first attempt wasn't.