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I have a virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 RC (Server version of Win7). Every time I add a second disk to the machine, the machine will crash within minutes (using VHDs) or seconds (using VDIs) under VB 2.2.4 or VB 3.

Host is Windows 7 x64. Any ideas?

Bump?

At what point does the crash occur, and what is the error message?

Do you mean that adding any second hard disk causes a crash, or only that a specific second hard disk (a specific VDI file)?

If the latter, how was the VDI file created? Did you use the GUI to create it, or does you just copy a file using the OS?

After turning on the virtual machine. Usually, I can't even get to the guest OS' login screen before it crashes.

The VHDs I was using are created with Windows 7 and the VDIs are created through the New button in VB's Media Manager.

Entegy wrote:I have a virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 RC (Server version of Win7). Every time I add a second disk to the machine, the machine will crash within minutes (using VHDs) or seconds (using VDIs) under VB 2.2.4 or VB 3.

Host is Windows 7 x64. Any ideas?

Do you have the latest version of VirtualBox installed? I'm running Windows Vista 64-bit host with a second 20 GB VHD hard disk image and I'm not running into problems at all so far.

Entegy wrote:I have a virtual machine running Windows Server 2008 R2 RC (Server version of Win7). Every time I add a second disk to the machine, the machine will crash within minutes (using VHDs) or seconds (using VDIs) under VB 2.2.4 or VB 3.

Host is Windows 7 x64. Any ideas?

It's still in development, so things like that can happen. And how did you install 2008 R2 anyway? Did you grab the VHD from the MS site, or install it manually. If you grabbed the VHD, then it's very likely there is something in it that causes this, where VB can't do anything about. From what I've seen on the website, it's an HyperV image, which are not yet supported by VB.
Come back here if you still have issues after you've installed the RC yourself on a VDI using the normal ISO installer, instead of a pre-installed VHD.

I only install guest OSs from an ISO or similar installation media. I hate preconfigured machines. And I want my guests to be installed on VHDs, not VDIs. And adding another of either crashes the machine.

And what if you add the second drive before installing the whole OS? Tried that yet? If that fails too, you know that it's a problem with Windows 2008 R2 RC, not VB. Is it the OS itself that's crashing, or the whole VM? It's not very clear, all you say is that the machine crashes, which can also happen on a bare metal install, which would point to the OS.

Have you tried the same set up on a different Host, say, XP? Windows 7 is still in development too, which can be the cause of these strange behaviours.

I refuse to ever use XP for personal use again. Haven't tried another host though to be honest.

And when I say "the machine crashes" I don't mean "the OS locks up", I mean "the machine freezes, can't do anything but force close it and it gets stuck in RAM taking up however much RAM I gave it and 25% of my CPU. I have to restart my host to get it out of memory and before VirtualBox becomes usable again".

Happens when trying to install Ubuntu x64 too. And the problem happens at any point I add a second drive, be it before or after OS installation.

Did try just two VDIs and install S2008RC. No freezing or crashing. Installed fine, ran fine for a while, which once again, leads me to believe something broke with VHD support. However, is it possible VHDs create with Disk Management in Windows 7 are different than VHDs created under Virtual PC 2007? I tried Googling this and found nothing. I've heard Hyper-V disks are different, but I don't even use that.