Please help, very confused.

[Themagusoflight]

Hi. I'm a bit new to all this, so forgive me if the problem I'm having is really obvious to fix. (Which is what I'm hoping.) Whenever I try to activate my version of Windows XP for my Mac with VirtualBox, it says it's loading and everything, but then it says 'PXE-E53: No boot filename recieved' And then it says 'PXE-MOF: Exiting Intel PXE ROM.' And finally; 'FATAL: Could not read from the boot medium! System halted.'

I have no idea what this means. Could someone please help me out with this? I'd really appreciate it.

[Themagusoflight]

Okay, I think I've figured it out what it means. I need a disk of some sort for storage, I think. Which I wasn't expecting, the website didn't mention anything like that. I'm not sure I'm right, though, and I don't know what kind of storage device I'll need. Could someone please point me in the right direction?

[sandervl]

Why not start by reading the manual? Your VM is like a real hardware. Without a disk it will not be able to do anything.

[rm53]

the disk that you need is just a virtual disk, in fact a file on your Mac. VB will just make one for you, if you simply advise the new-virtual-machine-assistant to do so.
If you accidently have made your virtual machine without a disc you can add a disk anytime later in the basic VB application by choosing the section disk and make a new one. Easy as you hoped for.

[Themagusoflight]

Okay, I think I've figured everything out. The only problem is that it still isn't working, and I think it's because it says 'Non-optimal settings detected'. In Settings. Could someone please help me figure out what settings are incorrect?

[Johnbb]

Then dead silence............

I too am a confused user with the same question about "non-optimal settings detected".

I too, am not a seasoned Mac or VirtualBox user. However, I HAVE read and am trying to find any reference to this error message in the Manual(now version 2.2.2). So far I am still in the dark.

Generally, I am very pleased to have found VirtualBox, as it seems so far to be one of the best for running a trouble free virtual machine. In my case Windows XP (SP3) on an iMac OS X 10.5.6

However, that still doesn't answer the question as to the reason and possible cause for this particular error message, namely: "non-optimal settings detected". The manual doesn't seem to be very helpful on this score.

Are there any knowledgeable 'gurus' out there who can give a helpful answer, if not to the reason at least to the possibilities ?

[baf]

One example that gives you "non optimal settings" is if you give your guest more than half your physical memory.
So tell us:
How much physical memory in the host?
Free disk size?

How much disk resp. memory have you given the guest?

[vbox4me2]

Or you are trying to create a XP VM, you select XP as the OS and then install linux...

[Johnbb]

Thx for your help.

It was a physical memory issue.

I have 4 Gb of RAM on this Intel iMac, and had allocated 3 Gb to the guest Windows XP.

I have now reduced this to 2GB and the message has disappeared.

Thx again for your help.

I am very pleased and impressed with VirtualBox so far.

I only have two pieces of Windows software that I need regularly, now I've moved to an iMac and VB has helped greatly. Previously I've tried BootCamp. Parallels and CrossOver and found them all wanting in some sphere or other.

[ChipMcK]

Another reason is Video Ram