Always get "FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted."

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chrisisbd
Posts: 1
Joined: 22. Jun 2021, 19:44

Always get "FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted."

Post by chrisisbd »

I'm trying to create a virtual Windows 7 or Windows 10 machine to run on my Linux host (xubuntu 21.04) running Virtualbox 6.1.18.

I have a Windows XP guest running OK so my Virtualbox is basically OK.

I have tried creating Windows 7 and 10 images using both Microsoft's disc2vhd.exe and VMware's VMware-converter-en-6.2.0-8466193.exe and I get the same result with both. I always end up having created a new virtual machine using one of the images (vhd or vmdk) with the error message "FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted".

I suspect this is because the 'source' system isn't a Windows only machine, it also has xubuntu linux on it and thus there are several partitions with different OSs and boot is managed by grub. Thus the Windows images I'm creating don't have the 'bootable' bits I need.

Here is the output of "fdisk -l" on the source system:-

root@t470# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-000L7
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: C68F8BD4-1CF1-44B2-88C3-DA104F162594

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 534527 532480 260M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2 534528 567295 32768 16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3 790528 125165567 124375040 59.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 498069504 500117503 2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p5 125165568 498069503 372903936 177.8G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdb: 476.94 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Disk model: KingDian N400 51
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x260c022a

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 1000215215 1000213168 476.9G 83 Linux
root@t470#


How do I produce a bootable Windows 10 image?

Oh, an extra bit of information, the 'source' system is EFI BIOS. If I 'Enable EFI' in Virtualbox then when I try starting it then I get dropped into the Grub menu, is there any way of sorting things out from there?
scottgus1
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Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Always get "FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted."

Post by scottgus1 »

chrisisbd wrote:I have tried creating Windows 7 and 10 images using both Microsoft's disc2vhd.exe and VMware's VMware-converter-en-6.2.0-8466193.exe and I get the same result with both. I always end up having created a new virtual machine using one of the images (vhd or vmdk) with the error message "FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted".

I suspect this is because the 'source' system isn't a Windows only machine, it also has xubuntu linux on it and thus there are several partitions with different OSs and boot is managed by grub.
Your assessment is probably correct, especially if you are trying to pick & choose the partitions to get just the Windows part. You need to take everything Windows needs, which may mean the whole drive & reconfigure the setup post import-into-Virtualbox.

I think Disk2VHD will make a smart transfer, taking only the data not the empty sectors. However it may be only Windows-compatible, maybe... What does Disk2VHD do with a dual-boot-with-Linux? A web-search may be in order.

I'd try a full copy of the whole disk, then delete out the Linux stuff inside the Virtualbox VM.
chrisisbd wrote:the 'source' system is EFI BIOS. If I 'Enable EFI' in Virtualbox then when I try starting it then I get dropped into the Grub menu,
This sounds like something is working. I don't think an EFI-boot image can boot in a Legacy-BIOS setting. At any rate, since the source PC is EFI, the Virtualbox VM will probably have to be EFI too.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Always get "FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted."

Post by mpack »

chrisisbd wrote:Oh, an extra bit of information, the 'source' system is EFI BIOS. If I 'Enable EFI' in Virtualbox then ...
If the drive uses GPT partitioning (not the same as the host having a UEFI BIOS, but the two usually go together), then enabling EFI in the VM settings is mandatory, as an MBR BIOS will not recognize the partitions on a GPT-formatted drive.

The grub problem should be seen as the real problem to solve.
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