Vista x86 + SATA Problem

[aaronfaby]

Here's my situation:

Host OS: Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7
Guest OS: Vista x86 32 bit
VBox Version: 3.0.0

Process:

1) I installed Vista under VBox 3.0.0 with the SATA controller enabled, but selected IDE Primary Master for the HDD.
2) After install, device manager shows the SATA controller available.
3) Installed Guest Additions.
4) Shutdown VM, switched HDD from IDE Primary master to SATA channel 0.
5) Successfully booted VM. SATA was recognized and windows installed the VBOX SATA DRIVER (something similarly named, can't remember exactly).
6) Windows demands a reboot, which I promptly comply.
7) Subsequent boots hang on the black Vista boot screen with the scrolling green progress bar. Vista never boots, no matter how long I wait.
If I switch back to IDE, it boots fine.

Any suggestions? Log file is attached.

[graysky]

I don't think you can install w/ IDE and switch to SATA without a total reinstall.

[lloesche]

Boot into the os using IDE and run regedit.
Then change the Start value of this registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\msahci.
The Start value should be 0. Microsoft claims that this should work.

[mpack]

I don't think you can install w/ IDE and switch to SATA without a total reinstall.

I don't know about Vista, but certainly you can do it on XP - provided you first do the MergeIDE trick.

[vbox4me2]

Full sata support (by channel type selection in the VM) is somewhat tricky, I've yet to see this running stable enough. However if you let it set to IDE and toggle the SATA option you will have near enough sata speed.

[dmcgraw]

I don't think you can install w/ IDE and switch to SATA without a total reinstall.

I don't know about Vista, but certainly you can do it on XP - provided you first do the MergeIDE trick.

Can you explain this? I have done the switch from IDE to SATA at least 10 times in an XP guest under VirtualBox.

And I have no idea what the MergeIDE trick is. I have never had to do anything other than install the SATA driver and change the VB settings.

[mpack]

Can you explain this? I have done the switch from IDE to SATA at least 10 times in an XP guest under VirtualBox. And I have no idea what the MergeIDE trick is.

I first heard about the need for MergeIDE on this Sun VBox support page. The page is talking about migration from physical to virtual, but in fact the same things apply when moving a windows XP image from one PC to any other PC which has significantly different hardware, particularly if it has a different IDE hard disk controller. A better explanation can be found in the link. MergeIDE makes a number of changes to the XP registry. I don't know that MergeIDE is necessary when moving from IDE to SATA, because I'd already made the changes by the time I tried enabling the SATA controller.

I'm not putting the MergeIDE idea forward as a fact, certainly not when the platform is Vista, I'm just mentioning it as something that helped me in a similar context. Perhaps someone else would comment on whether it's safe to use on Vista, and also whether it's needed for an IDE->SATA switch.