WinServer 2008 R2 SP1 VHD

[atira]

Hi,

I'd like some help with adding Windows Server 2008 R2 vhd properly. I tried to look for solutions to my problems but it's very confusing.

So far I created the virtual machine based on the vhd.
1. It created a 127GB virtual disk which I certainly do not want to have, I'd like to limit it to 40GB.
2. Once I try to boot it I get "Fatal: Int18: Boot failure" error. I've read that it might be related to not having an active partition. Since I have no install disk, I don't know how to do that.

Help is much appreciated.

[Perryg]

Perhaps you should tell us how you created the server to begin with. Also tell us how you created the guest in VirtualBox and why the 127GB instead of the 40GB you want?

[atira]

I downloaded it from Microsoft's download center.
I then added it as a new virtual machine by using an existing disk.

Reason for max. 40GB: I have all together 1TB capacity and I don't want to dedicate 127GB to Server2008 (which will be a simple test machine with SQL Server 2008). I don't think it really needs 127GB (the course I'm attending is using also using a 40GB disk).

[Perryg]

Ah it is a trial VHD from MS. You will be lucky to get this to work in VirtualBox and more than likely it will not.
What happens is the auth key for the VHD images you get from MS are marked as stolen keeping you from authenticating this when hardware changes (which is what is going to happen) if you use this in anything but VPC. There were talks with MS years ago about this but I guess they have not changed their minds (please correct me if they have).

[mpack]

Any partition manager will easily reduce the max size the drive can grow to. Cloning with CloneVDI (with Compact enabled) will get rid of disk data in unpartitioned areas.

The "Int18 boot failure" is odd. That error means that VBox thinks it's not a bootable disk. I think I've seen this error reported when someone mounts a differencing VHD as the primary disk image in a VM. But, I assume a VHD download from an MS site would not be a differencing VHD.

[BillG]

If it is server 2008 R2 it will be made for Hyper-V. R2 is 64-bit only and won't run on VPC.

I have never had much success running Hyper-V .vhds in VPC or VirtualBox.

[more-solutions]

A bit of digging found me a solution to this; Setting the VM to use IDE instead of SATA was all it needed.

I'd like to post a link to the source of this info (credit where it's due) but I'm not allowed to post a link, having signed up to the forum only to post the info in case it helps anyone else. Anyone interested can build the address from the info below:

dbccpage[dot]wordpress[dot]com/2011/10/24/virtual-box-with-microsoft-windows-server-2008-r2-vhd

[dagawral82]

@ more-solutions
I created the account to thank you.

[premax]

A bit of digging found me a solution to this; Setting the VM to use IDE instead of SATA was all it needed.

I'd like to post a link to the source of this info (credit where it's due) but I'm not allowed to post a link, having signed up to the forum only to post the info in case it helps anyone else. Anyone interested can build the address from the info below:

dbccpage[dot]wordpress[dot]com/2011/10/24/virtual-box-with-microsoft-windows-server-2008-r2-vhd

Thank you. Helped me too. I have download VHD trial from MS site, then converted it to thick VMDK using Startwind V2V Converter, then uploaded VMDK to my free ESXI 7.2 instance and then attached converted VMDK disk to IDE controller and works as a charm!