[WorksForMe] could not read from the boot medium

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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WhoDoVooDoo
Posts: 3
Joined: 23. May 2019, 15:25

[WorksForMe] could not read from the boot medium

Post by WhoDoVooDoo »

Using Acronis True Image, I created a clone of 40 Gig IDE Windows 98 drive and put it in my Windows 10 (1809) Host.
I created the VM without a hard disk. - VirtualBox V 6.0.6
I successfully pointed the VM to the physical disk using the following CLI command
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename "C:\Users\<user_name>\VirtualBox VMs\<VM_folder_name>\<file_name>.vmdk" -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive
the error I receive is "Fatal: Could not read from the boot medium! System halted."

Any thoughts on how to make my win98 drive bootable from this point?
Last edited by socratis on 23. May 2019, 23:38, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Marked as [WorksForMe].
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: could not read from the boot medium

Post by mpack »

That createrawvmdk command is not legal. Please reproduce the exact command you used. You also don't mention mounting the VMDK in the VM, though I would assume you did.

Why are you using raw disks at all? What advantage do you think this will have? It would be a lot simpler (no permissions problems) to convert the Win98 image to a VDI.

Guessing at your mistake: if the Win98 image was restored into a partition on the system drive then you can't access it. Raw disks require the DRIVE to the offlined from the host (this is a Windows security imposition, not a VirtualBox one), and you can't offline the host system drive while the host is still running. As mentioned this problem would not arise if you converted the image to VDI.
WhoDoVooDoo
Posts: 3
Joined: 23. May 2019, 15:25

Re: could not read from the boot medium

Post by WhoDoVooDoo »

I am using/trying a raw disk because I can't use a VHDX I created with Hyper-V.
I tried making a VDI and failed to find the instructions that work for me.
not always easy as it seems to be normal to be find misinformation like when I found the createrawvmdk command.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: could not read from the boot medium

Post by mpack »

You can clone the VHDX to VDI.

Again, I will not address generalities. Please give specific examples that I can help with, otherwise I'm afraid I'm done here.
WhoDoVooDoo
Posts: 3
Joined: 23. May 2019, 15:25

Re: could not read from the boot medium

Post by WhoDoVooDoo »

Thanks, we're done.
I have a VM.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: could not read from the boot medium

Post by socratis »

Marking as [WorksForMe].
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
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