virtualbox.org

Hey guys! This is my first post here, and very urgent! I am working with Windows 98 in a Virtual Box in Ubuntu 9.04 and while using it my host computer crashed (video driver problem that I am currently fixing; it had crashed before with VB running but I got back in no problem then). This time, going back into VB with no saved state (just powered off), as it boots up I cannot get past the Windows "Safe mode" selection prompt. I get "A critical error has occurred while running the virtual machine and the machine execution has been stopped." and a referral to this forum. I've attached the VBox.log.1 (renamed to .txt) and VBox.png as requested. I've tried rebooting my host, and changing some settings of the Windows image and am clutching at straws at what to do because I urgently need to continue working, but I can't get in.
PLEASE someone advise me on what I need to do!!! Help hugely appreciated!

Looks like the machine.xml got blown, create a new VM with the proper settings and attach VDI.

And make sure to test both types of ide interface under general->advanced->IDE controller type...
Edit all 3 types I see now...

@baf
Thanks for that suggestion. I tried PIIX3, PIIX4 and ICH6 and the result is the same. Other suggestions?
@vboxme2 By "create a new VM", do you mean re-install VM, or re-install the Windows XP image? (The latter choice does not really solve my problem... I have very important files I need in the original image. I will use the back-ups if I have to, but a lot of information will be lost ) What do you mean by "proper settings"? Everything has been working fine for weeks and I'm not aware of any settings I need to change.

Thanks to both of you for the very quick answer, but further suggestions would be very well received!!!

A Virtual Guest contains 2 components, the VM settings and the VDI. Any VDI can be associated with any VM settings set.

Whoops, my apologies vbox4me2, I didn't realize this.
I created a new virtual machine, and then attached the previous image but the same issue is occuring. What "proper settings" am I to change? The only option in the wizard is RAM and I am not sure what other settings to alter. I tried the other IDE controller types in the new VM settings but the result was the same. I can feel I'm one click away from the solution!!
Let me know how you think I should proceed.

Locate the old machine.xml file and compare its settings to the (new)VM you created. If this does not solve it then the VDI got damaged, I can't remember if w98 has a recovery console, but you could try a linux liveCD/xp to run a harddisk check/repair, or an old dos 622 image and run scandisk.

I am not too sure what I should be looking for in the xml files. I've attached the two of them here.
I'm trying to boot off the Windows XP installation iso image (also not sure if there is a scandisk option in W98 boot up). When I mount it as the image and then press F12 and select the CD I get the error: "FATAL: Could not read from boot medium! System halted." It looks like a Windows error, since VM errors are usually pop up windows. If I set it to automatically boot from the CD, with this iso in the settings, then it seems to just ignore that and go straight to the Safe-mode screen.
I'm currently downloading the ubuntu iso to try the fscandisk (or whatever it's called) in that. Do you think I'll have the same boot up from iso problem?
Any ideas based on the xmls? I really hope the image isn't damaged I'll have to go back to dual-booting for fear of this happening again and lose a lot of important work...
Please save me!

I used the Ubuntu disk on the image and selected the option to scan the disk for errors and it didn't find any.
The good news is I did manage to retrieve my files by using Ubuntu's "try without installing" option, but I still have software that I paid for on the image and getting new licenses may be complicated, so I'd appreciate any thoughts anyone has on any way of getting things working again with the original image??
Many thanks

If you have a backup VDI try that to see if settings and such are working, a crash can cause many problems, you only need 1 dll to get blown for windows to stop working.

Another VDI is working perfectly. Is there any way I can find out where the problem is? I can access all of the files on the image through Ubuntu's installation CD.

Not easely, the next step would be overwriting the system files between the good and the bad VDI until it boots.

OK, I may have to accept that this cannot be repaired and is due to a Windows error independent of VB. Thanks anyway for your help.

Good news!!
I finally found the original Windows XP installation CD and used that and did a repair installation over XP. No data was lost and all original programs installed are still intact! So whatever dll file etc. was damaged has been repaired.
It turned out to not be an issue with Virtualbox at all, but with Windows itself of course. Thanks for your suggestions and time!