Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

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pderocco
Posts: 22
Joined: 13. Apr 2020, 02:11

Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by pderocco »

I have a disk from an old laptop with Windows 7 Pro on it. It was originally installed from scratch (not an upgrade) from a full retail version, so it should have drivers for all hardware from whenever they stopped adding drivers to Win7. I did the following:
  • I put the disk into a USB enclosure and plugged it into my new Windows 10 laptop.
    It came up as drive E: and I verified that I could read it an write it.
    I took it offline in Disk Management.
    I ran DISKPART, found it had a readonly attribute, and turned that off.
    I created a VMDK file to refer to it.
    I ran VirtualBox as Administrator.
    I created a Windows 7 VM with very generic options.
    I added the .vmdk file to the database, and then to the VM.
    I booted it.
I got the animated Windows splash screen, but after about 10 seconds I got a blue screen for a moment. I managed to capture it with PrtSc, and it's a STOP error with a few meaningless hex numbers. It quickly goes into Windows Error Recovery, and it happens again if I try to boot normally.

Is this due to differences between the virtual hardware environment and the physical one it was originally installed in? I'm reluctant to run the full Startup Repair, because at least now I can put this drive back into my old laptop and run it, and I'm trying to preserve my ability to run some old software, not just preserve my data. But is that what I need to do if I want this to run under VirtualBox?
scottgus1
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Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by scottgus1 »

pderocco wrote:a STOP error with a few meaningless hex numbers
Those hex numbers aren't all that meaningless. In fact they mean a LOT. They mean exactly what the error was. So without knowing them we can't really do anything to help.

FWIW if they were 0x0000007B, then that means, if I remember correctly, that the hard drive controller that the original OS expects to see is not there anymore.

You're trying to boot a physical computer's OS in a VM. This is called Physical to Virtual, or P2V. Web-search "Windows 7 P2V site:forums.virtualbox.org" for others who have tired and succeeded in this process. The 7B error has been discussed.

And please consider more specific error reports, as they will help us help you better.
pderocco
Posts: 22
Joined: 13. Apr 2020, 02:11

Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by pderocco »

It was a 0x7B error. Changing the controller from SATA to IDE got me past that. I guess the fact that the drive has a SATA connector doesn't mean what one would think it means.

But, not surprisingly, it still doesn't boot. It now hangs on the Starting Windows screen forever, even though the window icon is still "breathing". If I boot the VM into safe mode, it hangs after loading classpnp.sys. Is this typical for a Win7 installation that is booting on the wrong hardware? Is it the sort of thing that Startup Repair could possibly fix? That's something I'm nervous about trying unless someone knows that it has a chance of working.

I'm not in any danger of losing data, and I've already copied most of it off this disk. Ultimately, though, I'm trying to actually boot this disk, because I have a program installed on it (Visio) which is activated, and I need to deactivate it so that I can activate it on my new laptop. I don't think that's something you can do by attaching the drive as a data drive on another computer.
scottgus1
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Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by scottgus1 »

I have not tried P2V'ing a Windows 7 OS, so I wouldn't know specifically how to fix some of those problems. You could try web-searching as mentioned above, with appropriate search terms added.

If you make a copy on the host disk of the VM's folder while the VM is shut down, then you can do anything you want to the VM and if something breaks badly you can copy the copy back over the original to revert the changes.
mpack
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Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by mpack »

It might help if we saw a VM log.
pderocco
Posts: 22
Joined: 13. Apr 2020, 02:11

Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by pderocco »

I've attached a log. I let it sit at the Starting Windows spash screen for close to a minute. During that time, there appears to be a single failed write to the disk every five seconds, and there a bunch of failed writes earlier in the boot sequence. The disk has a 100MB reserved partition for booting. It's not using EFI, since it's from an old laptop. The drive is offline in the Windows 10 host.
Attachments
VBox.zip
(28.81 KiB) Downloaded 16 times
mpack
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Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by mpack »

These are unusual, immediately on boot from hard disk:
00:00:05.897233 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0xa4d8 cSectors=0x1)
00:00:05.897438 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: int13_harddisk_ext: function 43, error 06 !
00:00:05.897478 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0xa4d8 cSectors=0x1)
00:00:05.897662 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: int13_harddisk_ext: function 43, error 06 !
00:00:05.897698 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0xa4d8 cSectors=0x1)
00:00:05.897881 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: int13_harddisk_ext: function 43, error 06 !
00:00:06.647656 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x3b7af504 cSectors=0x1)
00:00:06.647857 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: int13_harddisk_ext: function 43, error 06 !
00:00:06.647906 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x3b7af504 cSectors=0x1)
00:00:06.648091 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: int13_harddisk_ext: function 43, error 06 !
00:00:06.648135 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x3b7af504 cSectors=0x1)
00:00:06.648328 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: int13_harddisk_ext: function 43, error 06 !
...
00:00:39.667979 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:00:44.668754 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:00:49.663254 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:00:54.663486 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:00:59.664011 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:01:04.663095 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:01:09.662972 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:01:14.663656 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:01:19.663654 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x32800 cSectors=0x10)
00:01:19.680606 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x5e7970 cSectors=0x8)
00:01:24.679443 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x5e7970 cSectors=0x8)
00:01:29.678874 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk write error (rc=VERR_WRITE_PROTECT iSector=0x5e7970 cSectors=0x8)
I see that the primary hard disk is a VMDK located at 'C:\Users\PAULD\VirtualBox VMs\PAULD\PAULD.vmdk'.

Windows will not tolerate a read only boot drive.

That is a strange scattering of sector numbers. Is this a raw disk access scenario? [Edit: reviewing the first post, I see that it is. That makes this a rather standard permissions problem with raw access under Win7 and later: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=38914#p175089. ]

I suggest that you try cloning the VMDK to a VDI. That will eliminate a number of ??? concerning that VMDK. Alternatively (more work, but much more likely to be successful), image the drive using Macrium Reflect Free, and the "restore" the image into a blank VM. Macrium has the ability to make smart images (i.e. ignoring unused sectors). I think it will also cope with a different target drive size, e.g. if you want to make it smaller.
pderocco
Posts: 22
Joined: 13. Apr 2020, 02:11

Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by pderocco »

You were right about the readonly attribute. Clearing that allowed it to boot up normally. Since my last post, I did the same thing on another machine, moving a Windows 7 disk from a desktop machine that I'm going to repurpose, into my Windows 10 desktop, and configured it as a VM. It had the same problem. It turns out that taking the disk offline in Windows causes Windows to set that readonly attribute. Nice of Windows to be so proactive.

By the way, on the desktop machine VM I created yesterday, I got an activation notice this morning, and it happily activated okay online without having to deactivate the original. Hopefully when the laptop VM asks to be activated tomorrow, I'll be able to do that one online too, because I can't deactivate that on the dead original laptop. I guess you get one freebie, in some situations. Or maybe MS just doesn't care about Win7 systems any more, figuring that only a small fraction of its customer base would have any interest in cheating with an unsopported version of Windows.

Thanks for the assistance.
mpack
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Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by mpack »

pderocco wrote:it happily activated okay online without having to deactivate the original.
That's normal: the old hardware was implicitly deactivated when the server accepted a new hardware signature for this product key.
pderocco wrote:Hopefully when the laptop VM asks to be activated tomorrow, I'll be able to do that one online too
If these are cloned from the same product key I would not try that. The laptop clone will have a different hardware signature. The server will not allow multiple activations of one product key (unless it's a volume license of course). Either you will end up with the first VM deactivated, or both VMs deactivated and needing a call to Microsoft to explain what's happening.

These processes are all automated - how much Microsoft cares doesn't really enter into the equation.

I actually do have an instance of XP dating from a late period when Microsoft stopped caring about casual theft of XP by home users who had now moved on to later fashions: the symptom is that XP stopped asking for activation altogether. If it still asks for activation then servers are involved and those have no feelings, they just apply the rules.
pderocco
Posts: 22
Joined: 13. Apr 2020, 02:11

Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by pderocco »

mpack wrote:If these are cloned from the same product key I would not try that. The laptop clone will have a different hardware signature. The server will not allow multiple activations of one product key (unless it's a volume license of course). Either you will end up with the first VM deactivated, or both VMs deactivated and needing a call to Microsoft to explain what's happening.
No, this is my old laptop brain running as a VM inside my new laptop, and my old desktop brain running inside my new desktop. Two separate Win7 retail licenses. Both activated just fine.

I wonder how Microsoft would discover the old desktop machine was still running, and how it would get deactivated. That probably couldn't happen if it was never online. Not that I care--I'm turning it into a Linux box.
mpack
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Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by mpack »

I didn't say that Microsoft would find out. I said that the server would not allow multiple activations of one product key. Obviously that can only apply if the server is made aware of multiple activations, which is precisely why I suggested you avoid that path.

If the scenario I discussed is not applicable to you then great. It may however be applicable to other readers.
scottgus1
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Re: Trying to boot Win7 disk under Win10

Post by scottgus1 »

pderocco wrote:I wonder how Microsoft would discover the old desktop machine was still running, and how it would get deactivated.
They have ninjas.

No, wait, my bad, that's Apple.

Never mind.

:lol:
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