virtualbox.org

host OS Windows 7 64 bit SP1, RAM 8GB, CPU Intel i3 2120
VM created using 8400.0.amd64fre.winmain_win8rc.120518-1423_server_serverdatacenter_en-us.vhd, 4GB RAM, VT-X and nested paging are enabled, the USB controller is disabled, audio is set to null, PAE is enabled, 2 virtual CPU cores, network is set to bridged

After a few minutes from VM startup, the guest OS logo animation is running, the VirtualBox hdd activity icon is stuck on red, the host's hdd is doing something intensive (the case hdd led is always on). Clicking on the top-right X window button to bring up the Close Virtual Machine window, VirtualBox hangs. After forced termination of Virtualbox and VboxSVC, VirtualBox reports that it can't access the vhd image. Overwriting the vhd file fixes this.

The first time I tried it, I waited over an hour for the guest OS to complete its preparation stage, but it didn't and I lost patience.

Where did you get the VHD from?

From here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-c ... trial.aspx

Did you try this image with stable VBox releases (4.1.20) or/and with VBox 4.2.0 Beta 1 or RC 1?

Now that you've asked, I've tried 4.1.20 and it has the same problem. I'll post a new bug in the bug tracker.

I don't think this is a VBox bug. Microsoft seems to have created this VHD for Hyper-V where the virtual hardware is different from VBox.
Did you try to download the ISO and do a clean install?

There's no such requirement mentioned. Also, I managed to test the VM using other storage controllers. I managed to get it up and running using SCSI Lsilogic controller, SAS controller and IDE controller.
I've also tried lowering guest RAM to 2048, setting 1 CPU core, disabling 3D and PAE, changing the chipset from PIIX3 to ICH9. All this for trying to get the guest OS to work with the SATA controller.

It's a VHD - it will have been built for a specific VM platform, most likely a Microsoft one. I rather doubt that MS built it for VirtualBox, unless they said so.

Installing from the ISO, while using the SATA controller, seems to work. I still don't think this is a guest OS issue. It's not normal for any software to hang.

mhanor wrote:I still don't think this is a guest OS issue. It's not normal for any software to hang.

If you take a operating system image intended for one hardware platform, and move that image onto entirely different hardware (albeit in this case both were simulated hardware), then hanging can be considered the least of the potential problems you might see. In any case it's the guest OS which hangs, so by all means go see how much traction you can generate on this with Microsoft.

You haven't understood what I've said. Virtualbox itself hangs!