Port Windows 6.1 (Server 2008/Win7) from physical Raid to VirtualBox/Comprehensive Guide on BSOD 0x0000007B?

[fth0]

@mpack:
It looks like I was wrong and you're right. I've corrected my previous post accordingly. Sorry for any confusion!

[JohnClow4334]

Something that might be of interest for others with similar issues: Windows has two mass storage device classes: one is SCSI and RAID, the other seems to be everything else (e.g. IDE, SATA). Given that, the conversion SATA <-> IDE differs from RAID -> SATA/IDE not only because RAID likely needs a distinct driver, but also because it is a different device class.

I am about to give up on this, maybe the backup image is broken somehow. After trying a lot of things, there is still a BSOD 7B, but it occurs at a different phase of boot. chkdsk and sfc do not report issues, so I have no idea what else I could do.

[mpack]

Congratulations: it's clear to me that you have done your homework and now have a far better understanding of the issues. That is depressingly uncommon around here. People will come, argue from the POV of their preconceptions, and never do any research even after it is pointed out that those preconceptions are incorrect.

You still have the option I mentioned in my first post above:

This P2V project is probably not doable. I would suggest installing a guest OS from scratch, then migrate the data files from the old drive.

I.e. booting a disk image is probably out of the question, but you might still be able to access the data, especially if you still have access to the old RAID system and can do a files level backup from it.

[mpack]

One puzzle now that I think about it. Your OP mentions that "two of the original drives are dead". Isn't the whole point of using RAID is that you replace the drives when they fail? So how did it reach two failures? That is the root problem here.

I have a 4-bay NAS running in a RAID5 configuration. My backups do not reproduce the (proprietary) RAID image! That makes no sense to me. Instead my backup is at files level to a humungous USB external drive. Unfortunately my NAS has grown to 57TB (usable) while the USB is "only" 20TB, however for the moment that is large enough for the contents, which I only need to sync occasionally.

[scottgus1]

I queried that same question myself, Mpack: how can a two-dead-drive RAID5 be recovered? Apparently John had images of the three drives from before the physical drives were dead. John was somehow able to recompile the 3 images into a single image to boot from.

My script-kiddie-level experience with RAID is that though the OS sees only one apparent drive, not the individual drives behind the RAID controller, the OS still sees the RAID controller between the OS and the apparent drive. I believe this is where John's backup was having trouble restoring and where the 7B BSOD was coming from. MergeIDE was only supposed to relax XP's expectation of what IDE controller it expected, not switch and OS from RAID to IDE or SATA.

Since Virtualbox, of course, doesn't have a RAID controller, John's backup had to be changed, inside the backup OS, to look for a SATA (or IDE) controller instead of a RAID controller. This is the same thing John would have to do if he was moving his backup to a different physical computer instead of a VM. I surmise that googling how to do this for a physical PC would probably have given the same answer that would have ben needed for restoring to Virtualbox.

[JohnClow4334]

I.e. booting a disk image is probably out of the question, but you might still be able to access the data, especially if you still have access to the old RAID system and can do a files level backup from it.

Your idea is good from a generic perspective, however I would not put so much effort into booting it if it was that easy (e.g. the only requirement was access to files). The configuration is complex and partly unknown to me and as common on Windows systems the registry is part of the configuration for many applications. As the registry is also the place where the boot configuration is stored (well, most of it) I cannot blindly restore registry hives, as the result would very likely be another VM unable to boot to Windows.

One puzzle now that I think about it. Your OP mentions that "two of the original drives are dead". Isn't the whole point of using RAID is that you replace the drives when they fail? So how did it reach two failures? That is the root problem here.

They died **after** creation the backup images. My intention writing that was only to make clear that I cannot access the original disks anymore.

MergeIDE was only supposed to relax XP's expectation of what IDE controller it expected, not switch and OS from RAID to IDE or SATA.

Your statement ignores MergeIDE 2.0/3.0, but I think it is correct regarding MergeIDE 1.0

I surmise that googling how to do this for a physical PC would probably have given the same answer that would have ben needed for restoring to Virtualbox.

Maybe, but the posts I found regarding "P2P" have been IDE from/to SATA issues, usually solved by "change the mode of the SATA controller in BIOS".

[scottgus1]

the posts I found regarding "P2P" have been IDE from/to SATA issues

Correct. Switching IDE to SATA or altering SATA activity in the BIOS is not your problem. Clear the whole hypervisor aspect of the question from your mind, as well as SATA vs IDE vs MergeIDE version whatever, and consider the following:

How do you get a backed up OS, after restore but before boot, to not look for its RAID controller anymore, but to be content with a SATA or IDE controller? That's your problem. It's the problem you'd face restoring this backup to a physical PC without the correct RAID controller in it, Soon as you figure the physical PC restore out, you can do the same into a VM of any hypervisor.

[mpack]

Your statement ignores MergeIDE 2.0/3.0, but I think it is correct regarding MergeIDE 1.0

There is no such thing as MergeIDE 2.0 or 3.0, so indeed I ignore it. I asked you for clarification on this earlier and you ignored that. So my position on the subject is now settled.

However I believe the clue is in the name: MergeIDE is what it always has been: a tool for blending IDE specs, not a tool for changing controller types in a Windows image.

[JohnClow4334]

How do you get a backed up OS, after restore but before boot, to not look for its RAID controller anymore, but to be content with a SATA or IDE controller? That's your problem. It's the problem you'd face restoring this backup to a physical PC without the correct RAID controller in it, Soon as you figure the physical PC restore out, you can do the same into a VM of any hypervisor.

Sure. What I intended to say is that searching the web for that very issue seems close to impossible with all the "IDE vs. SATA" search results within.

[JohnClow4334]

There is no such thing as MergeIDE 2.0 or 3.0, so indeed I ignore it. I asked you for clarification on this earlier and you ignored that. So my position on the subject is now settled.

Not sure why you care so much about the name. I think MergeIDE 2.0 may have nothing to do with the original XP IDE issue/ Tool but only with IDE vs. AHCI. I think it was just named MergeIDE 2.0 because it solves a similar issue (BSOD 7b) for newer Windows versions than the original MergeIDE. Whether is is called "MergeIDE 2.0", "MyMergeIDE", "AHCI-IDE-Switcher" or "bananas" does not really make any difference, odes it?

[mpack]

You have provided no evidence for any of that. And no evidence that "MergeIDE 2" and "MergeIDE 3" do anything that makes them worth knowing about.

"MergeIDE" is a reg file created by Microsoft, years ago. A German mag wrote a script for it. That is the only MergeIDE we have ever recommended. Anything from other sources is for your own investigations: by all means report back if you found it actually did something useful. Then we might start taking account of it. After all that's the only reason the original is remembered.