virtualbox.org

I have vb ver1.6.x. I have used xp now for a while with little issues ( installed 2 xp's, and even a ME) on a vista host, but cant seem to get vista to install. It goes through all the steps of installation, but when its at "completing", it does a reboot, and then either sits at the green load bar, or sticks right before that before the reboot.

Ideas?

Have you tried an upgrade to 2.0.6? I got Vista installed without any issues. Maybe the install medium has a flaw?

Well, I just upgraded, and it still wont' install........except it gets further than the last time. After that reboot, it went to "completing installation" again, and then rebooted again - followed by 1 1/2 hrs of a black screen. sigh....shut down, try something else....

A couple of safe-mode attempts hung at loading the ecache.sys file wich is a readyboost driver ("After the ReadyBoost service initializes caching, the Ecache.sys device driver intercepts all reads and writes to local hard disk volumes (C:\, for example), and copies any data being written into the caching file that the service created"). I'm not sure if this is blocking the write to the virtual drive or something.

I tried disabling usb, audio, and network to try to simplify things....nope.
I tried a format....nope.
A startup repair gets hung on the event log check every time.

But hey....XP works fine.

If I have time tomorrow, I'm going to try my vista rc disk...... but this disk is brand new out of the sleeve - I dont know why it wouldnt work.

I couldn't find my rc disk, but i tried the install with this disk on another computer, and its the same thing. Maybe it is the media after all..
I still want to try the other disk though.

update: Found the rc build, and it installed fine. Guess the disk is crap.
Brand new outta the sleeve too.

I'm having the same exact problem. I'm trying to install Vista using Virtualbox 2.1 on a LinuxMint (Ubuntu 8.10) host.

My vista install gets stuck after the first reboot, in the "Completing..." step.

My Vista CD has been used successfully in the past.

Huh. Well now I am unconvinced the dvd is the problem seeing as you are having the EXACT same issue.

I guess I'm screwed. I wanted to test some software out, but these are the only two disks I have, and the rc disk won't activate for me to use it - only install.

I have installed Vista successfully before. Try using a RTM version of Vista.

Also make sure to leave the DVD mounted in the VM until Vista is at the desktop for the first time. After the first reboot the DVD is still required.

You can try to create a bootable ISO from the DVD. You can create one using vLite (from the maker of nLite). Downloadable from http://www.vlite.net.