Guest systems do not start after reconnecting the hard disks on the host PC

[voldemar]

Hello.
I carefully read and followed the recommendations for finding answers to the questions in the "Board index <General <Howtos and Tutorials <Rules and FAQs" section, but I did not find the answer to my question, so I'm asking it to the community.
For several years VirtualBox has been actively and successfully used on my PC. A few days ago, when cleaning the system unit from dust, I disconnected the SATA hard drive cables from the sockets on the motherboard. In my PC 3 HDD, on the motherboard 6 SATA 6Gb/s. Unfortunately, I did not remember how they were connected earlier. After cleaning of the system unit, I connected the cables back, apparently, to other ports of the SATA motherboard.
The reconnection of hard disks did not affect the host's work, but virtual machines were not started. The guest system is loaded to the password input screen and takes off for the blue screen. When logging the guest OS load, the error starts with "Did not load driver Computer with ACPI". The mindump of the guest system indicates a hal.dll error.
Host: Intel i7, RAM 32Gb, Windows 7 Pro x64 SP1.
Guests: Windows XP SP3.
I hope for your help in solving my problem.

[scottgus1]

If your guest window opens and you see the "password input screen" in the guest OS then Virtualbox is running your guest correctly. The guest's "hardware" is completely virtual (except for the CPU itself) and does not relate at all to the kinds of physical hardware you host PC has.

The trouble the guest OS is reporting is not something that Virtualbox has caused or can influence. Merely changing the ports the physical hard drives were on will not cause the guest OS to have issues.

Please clarify where the reported error "Did not load driver Computer with ACPI" is appearing: in the guest OS window or in a Virtualbox error message on the host OS?

FWIW I don't think that was an exact quote. Please quote exactly what error messages say. Virtualbox error messages have a "Copy" button in the error window that you can use to transfer the error message to the forum.

[scottgus1]

One other thing, if you attempted to change the settings on your guest storage controller to compensate for what you thought you had done with the physical drives, then doing so was wrong. Change it all back.

If the error message is what I think it is, then you may have changed the storage controller on your XP guests from IDE to SATA under the mistaken impression that since the host drives are on SATA the guest must be, too. XP doesn't know how to use SATA controllers and might throw errors sounding like HAL issues and ACPI stuff.

[voldemar]

The message "Did not load driver Computer with ACPI" appears in the file of the protocol of boot guest WinXP ntbtlog.txt.
The virtual machine's disk settings did not change. Now checked - there IDE.
In total, I have 9 virtual machines with WinXP. All worked fine before reconnecting the HDD to the host. After reconnecting the HDD, everything stopped working.
I apply everything that could collect.

[voldemar]

I'll add more.
Thank you.

[scottgus1]

I can think of a reason why moving a host hard drive would not allow a guest to boot at all: the drive letter changed. But I can't think of any reason why moving a host hard drive would make a guest not boot normally but boot in Safe Mode. Nor why all 9 guests now have the same issue.

That the guest is booting in Safe Mode indicates that Virtualbox is working. Back up one of the guests using Moving a VM and re-interpret it as "Backing Up a VM". Then uninstall the Guest Additions from the backed-up guest while in Safe Mode, and see if the guest can then boot normally.

Also, I see that the log shows VT-x is not available. Later Virtualbox versions are taking to require VT-x even when the guest would seemingly not need it. Look here for how to fix: I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests

[voldemar]

I read the article on your link, and I'll try to find something similar in the BIOS as soon as the cloning of the virtual machine has ended.
However, I am tormented by a question: earlier everything worked?

[socratis]

However, I am tormented by a question: earlier everything worked?

If you mean in earlier VirtualBox versions, yes, up to the 4.3.x series VT-x was not required for XP. After the 5.x series, it became a requirement.

But, are you 100% sure that you did no other changes to your host? Updates of the OS, antivirus or anything else?

[voldemar]

Possible changes to the host system I have already checked. Windows 7 was updated last time on June 18. After that, everything worked. Avast was updated today, when nothing worked. "A significant change in the system" can be moving the PC to another corner of the room. At the same time, I cleaned the system unit of dust with the disconnection of SATA cables (damn me pulled these cables!). I also turned off the second monitor. USB devices are also switched to other ports, I did not follow. But the printer, the camera and the keyboard can not affect the virtual machines!
As for the version of VirtualBox, I always update it when I receive the corresponding message. Now I have a 5.1.22. When I upgraded to version 5, the BIOS did not change anything and everything worked. Frankly about VT-x learned just from you.
Previously I encountered the compatibility problem of VirtualBox and Avast. But it easily decided to turn off Avast hardware virtualization. With this problem, virtual machines worked, but very tight.
The current problem, I connect, after all, with the reconnection of hard disks. There is simply no more to it. Virtual machines with linux have been loaded for a very long time. In addition, Mint bugs, Ubuntu is silent, but does not connect to the network.
Machines with linux are not important to me. The main thing is to restore the machines with WinXP.

[voldemar]

There is more. No Guest Additions is installed in one of virtual computers with WinXP.

[voldemar]

I have solved this problem. Thanks to all who were with me in this time, difficult for me. Scottgus1, your words and references have helped me to deal more deeply with VirtualBox and in general in questions of virtualization.

[scottgus1]

That's great news! What fixed it?

[voldemar]

I apologize for not saying anything for a long time. Tried to deal with the issue in detail. However, I did not understand much.
When I wrote that I solved the question, it was premature. Then I managed to run 2 machines with WinXP, disabling the boot of intelppm.sys driver. But this number did not work with other machines. The question finally decided to include support for VT-x in the BIOS of the host. Everything worked right away, including linuxs. For the sake of justice, I must say that without the help of scottgus1, I would not understand. This once again confirms the extreme usefulness of this forum and its experienced participants.
However, for me the question remained, how everything worked without VT-x support before reconnecting SATA cables. I deployed a new trial WinXP guest machine before I turned on VT-x, and it worked fine both before and after turning on VT-x.
I periodically will look here. If the respected experienced participants find the answer to this question, I very much ask him to publish it here.
Thanks to all!