Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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GregW67
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Joined: 29. Jul 2021, 08:22

Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by GregW67 »

Screenshot 2021-08-06 115819.png
Screenshot 2021-08-06 115819.png (47.15 KiB) Viewed 5251 times
I posted about this topic earlier (in a post about two related topics) but I thought I could make it clearer by giving it its own title.

I am running VirtualBox 6.1.24 on Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit and have managed to successfully set up the following guests : Windows 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.11, 95B, 95C, 98SE, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP Pro, Vista Ultimate, 7, and 8.1.

When it comes to trying to start Windows NT 3.51, however, it fails every time with a boot-time blue screen full of numbers and letters and some words. The words include STOP, INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE, and "Restart and set the recovery options in the system control panel". The file ntoskrnl.exe is also mentioned 29 times.

My copy of NT 3.51 was not manually installed the usual way but rather was downloaded as a ready-made VDI virtual file. I obtained this from a very reputable site, and their other Windows VDI's have been faultless.

I have attached a screenshot of this blue screen to this message.

I should mention that I have VirtualBox set as Windows 3.x and have left all settings as default for this system except for experimenting with 128 MB of RAM. I still have the same boot problem with 64 or 32 MB RAM. As can be seen above, I have had no trouble of this kind with Windows NT 4.0, nor with 3.11 Windows for Workgroups.
BillG
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Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by BillG »

Changing settings at random is not likely to fix a boot device inaccessible problem. The message means just what it says. The vm cannot find or cannot access the device it is trying to boot from. If it was available but not bootable you should get a different message.

Have a look in System in the Settings of the vm and see what it is trying to boot from. If it is set to boot from Hard Disk, check the Storage section to find what the virtual disk is called. Look in Virtual Media Manager and make sure the device is listed there. Hovering over it will display where it is stored if it is present.
Bill
fth0
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Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by fth0 »

You probably selected the wrong Storage Controller type.
mpack
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Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by mpack »

GregW67 wrote: I should mention that I have VirtualBox set as Windows 3.x and have left all settings as default for this system except for experimenting with 128 MB of RAM.
If "set as Windows 3.x" means that you chose the Windows 3.x template for NT 3.5 then that is incorrect. WinDOS and NT are separate OS. VirtualBox has an NT 3.x template, that's what you should use.

There could be many other settings errors. Hard to say with no VM log!
birdie
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Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by birdie »

Make sure the storage controller type is specified correctly.

I've just installed Windows NT 3.51 using the IDE controller (PIIX3) and it works just fine (doesn't mean it will work with your image - it might have been created using e.g. SCSI).
GregW67
Posts: 16
Joined: 29. Jul 2021, 08:22

Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by GregW67 »

Thanks for your suggestions. I finally tried something a bit different and it finally worked. I selected "Windows NT 4" under the Version when you first set up a virtual machine, rather than Windows NT 3.x which seemed like the logical choice. I left all settings to default. NT 3.51 finally paused at the blue screen, which is normal, and then moved on!

I wanted to post this in case anyone else ever has this same problem.
mpack
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Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by mpack »

Thanks for reporting that. Whether the NT4 or NT3 templates would work best with NT3.5 is a question that occurred to me, but I didn't expect it to really make a difference. It's rare for the specs for the "next" version of Windows to be incompatible with the previous version's template. The only other case I know about is Windows 8, which will not work at all with a Win7 template.
fth0
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Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by fth0 »

mpack wrote:Whether the NT4 or NT3 templates would work best with NT3.5 is a question that occurred to me, but I didn't expect it to really make a difference. It's rare for the specs for the "next" version of Windows to be incompatible with the previous version's template.
I just took a look, and the major difference is that the Windows NT 3.x template has the BusLogic SCSI controller, whereas the Windows NT 4 template has the PIIX4 IDE controller.
GregW67
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Joined: 29. Jul 2021, 08:22

Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by GregW67 »

fth0 wrote:I just took a look, and the major difference is that the Windows NT 3.x template has the BusLogic SCSI controller, whereas the Windows NT 4 template has the PIIX4 IDE controller.
That must be the critical difference between them then. Something else I noticed was that if you have already created a Windows NT 3.51 VM and then change its template to Windows NT 4, it still will not work. You have to create it as Windows NT 4 from the very beginning.

By the way the default 128 MB of RAM works fine in NT 3.51 and is registered by the system, there is no need to drop it to lower levels.
BillG
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Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by BillG »

I thought that was the cause too, but I just tried it out. I installed 3.51 using the NT 4.0 profile and it worked fine. I then tried it using the NT 3.x profile (yes, it has a SCSI disc controller) expecting it to fail, but the install proceeded!
NTSettings.PNG
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NTInstall.PNG
NTInstall.PNG (18.29 KiB) Viewed 5081 times
It could still be a problem for a pre-configured VM.
Bill
GregW67
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Joined: 29. Jul 2021, 08:22

Re: Windows NT 3.51 INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE blue screen at boot

Post by GregW67 »

Thanks Bill. It would well be due to a problem with a pre-configured VM. I obtained mine from Virtual Disk Images. I just haven't been able to get it to work under the Windows NT 3.x setting.
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