Can't install Windows Vista Beta 1

[Mario Rosso]

Hi,
I don't know why I get this error as follows.
Can anyone tell me what can I do?
Thanks.

[mpack]

Provide a VM log file. Make sure the VM is fully shut down, then right click it in the manager UI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

[Mario Rosso]

Here's the log file!

[Mario Rosso]

I don't receive a reply. Are you still reading the log file?

[scottgus1]

We on the forum are fellow unpaid volunteer Virtualbox users like yourself and we have lives. Once something is posted, give a few days for someone to respond.

There does not appear to be anything wrong with the setup of the VM. The VM's hard drive is in place. The VM read some 15-ish kB from the hard disk.

Looks like something unhappy in the Vista installer, not Virtualbox, to me so far. Try troubleshooting the Vista side of things with a web-search.

[fth0]

FWIW, it looks like the standard Windows installer dialog that everybody gets to see when trying to install older Windows versions on an empty hard disk (*). The key is to find the "New" button.

(*) Many users of physical PCs never get there, because they buy their PC with a Windows OS pre-installed, and when installing a new Windows variant, the hard disk is not empty.

[multiOS]

I may not be remembering correctly, but recall vaguely that, when installing Windows Vista on an unformatted hard drive, it was necessary to first use the Diskpart.exe command line utility from the Vista installation disk to make the hard-drive partition active and to format the drive (FAT32?) prior to running the installation. A bit of online searching will probably be necessary to find guidance on procedure and the use of Diskpart.exe commands.

It only sticks in the mind because very similar preparation action is still required on older Apple Mac Systems that still have replaceable hard drives and, of course, for new macOS VM installations!

[mpack]

I have to say that isn't how I remember it. That's indeed how it was on Win95, but from Win98SE onwards the installer should hide all of that away. By Vista era it should be gone.

But I'm talking OS releases. This is some unknown beta, so who knows what's wrong with it.

Another possibility: it's not a beta, it's an upgrade looking for an existing XP partition. Though I'd expect a better error message.

Or again, not a beta but an OEM copy.

@Mario Rosso: can you provide a screenshot or some other evidence that you do have a Vista beta?

[Mario Rosso]

After restart, I don't get the error message shown above, but after file copying and restart, the virtual machine freezes, after long time, crashes by giving me this:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage
to your computer.

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen,
restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow
these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed.
If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer
for any Windows updates you might need.

If problem continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware
or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.
If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart
your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then
select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000009F (0x00000003,0x809CB030,0x809E0BC8,0x80F2E008)

Then on the screen

Completing installation...

Do not restart your computer during this time

After some time CPU in Task Manager goes 0%

[scottgus1]

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer/Finder/File Manager. In the "Logs" subfolder, zip the VM's "vbox.log", and post the zip file, using the forum's Attachments tab. (Configure your host OS to show all extensions so you can find the "vbox.log", not "vbox.log.1", etc.)

[Mario Rosso]

Here's the log file!

[scottgus1]

The VM's template is XP, not Vista. I don't know if that's important.

The VM boots from CD ROM, but switches over to the hard drive and reads about 72MB.

The OS runs for ~15 seconds and turns on the display:

00:00:06.754483 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: Booting from CD-ROM...
...
00:00:18.102420 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=000000000a790000 w=640 h=480 bpp=32 cbLine=0xA00 flags=0x0 origin=0,0
00:00:21.957577 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'SUSPENDING'

Nothing happens wrong in the VM's hardware.

Did the BSOD happen again during this run of the VM?

If so, I don't think anything is wrong with Virtualbox. I think it's the OS that is not liking the Virtualbox environment. Try making a new VM and setting the VM type to 'Vista' instead of 'XP', and also check the 32 vs 64 bit.

[Mario Rosso]

No, I don't get a BSOD when I run again, but however, at

Completing installation...

Do not restart your computer during this time

After some time, CPU on Task Manager goes to 0% and gets stuck but it doesn't crash.

[scottgus1]

It seems that the installation is gradually getting through. I seem to recall that some OS installers would crash on a particular problem but would come around again and try something different. And of course, this being a prerelease, the installer may also
have bugs.

Keep restarting, see if each time further progress gets made.

[Mario Rosso]

This what happens when setup restarts. I chose Windows Vista as you previously saied, but gets stuck at this point...