[SOLVED] Guest: Vista x64 - FATAL: No bootable medium found!

[peshom]

Hello everyone.

I have used VirtualBox for a while now and I have to say that I have never had a problem with it before.

Here is what I am trying to do:

I have a Windows Vista Home Basic (x64) on my computer. I have tried Ubuntu in the past and I really like it. I want to move to Ubuntu permanently, however there are still programs that I use on Windows that I do not want to part with - primarily work related. My computer did not (unfortunately) come with a "Recovery Disk" or a Windows Installation Media, just a "Recovery Partition". It also came with some software that was designed to create a Recovery Disk, however that software does not work. I tried booting in the recovery partition, but that does not work either. So basically I have a working Windows Vista installation, but if something should happen to it I will be forced to pay $20 for a "Recovery Disk" from Gateway. I really would like to avoid having to do that. It just the principle of being forced to pay AGAIN for something that I already paid for. I guess my $700 purchase was not enough to get me a physical version of Windows. Anyway that is whole other rant for a whole different forum.

In order to be able to keep Windows I figured I will make a backup of the OS partition using DriveImage XML and use UBCD for Wondows 3.50 to restore it to a virtual drive in a VirtualBox machine. Since I had learned my lessons from the past, I decided to go through with that process BEFORE I formatted my drives and run the possibility of loosing my windows installation.

I am running Virtualbox 3.0.4, I have set up a 258 GB Dynamically Expanding Virtual Drive (My OS partition is slightly smaller than that). The guesOS under VB is set up to be Windows Vista (64 bit), IDE controller is the default PIIX4. The virtual hard drive is hooked up to "IDE Primary Master". The partition on the Virtual Drive is Primary and set to Active.

The backup and restore operation went smoothly with DriveImage XML - no errors during either process. I restarted the virtual machine and it didn't load. I tried running the "Fix Vista Boot" from DriveImage XML, and it asked me to locate the bcdedit.exe file, which I did, but that didn't work at all. I believe that is because I used a Windows XP (32 bit) as the source for creating the UBCD for Windows 3.50, and since the OS I am trying to restore is 64-bit, maybe it can't run bcdedit.exe, because bcdedit.exe happens to be 64 bit. I tried running the commands directly into the command prompt and it says that "bcdedit.exe is not a valid Win32 application." (Another hit that it might be 64 bit).

The next thing I tried was downloading the Windows Vista x64 Recovery Disk from neosmart.net. I mounted the ISO, it booted normally, then I selected the option to repair the startup. It finished and asked me to restart. After restarting the screen just from after giving me the option to boot from the CD/DVD by pressing any key. I had forgotten to unmount the ISO. After unmounting, I restarted the virtual machine and it showed the following error:

"FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted!"

I mounted the Vista x64 recovery disk again and after running the startup recovery again, it showed that it didn't find any problems with the boot settings. All tests in the report showed "Completed Successfully".

Frankly I have tried everything I could think of, but then again I am no expert in these things.

I would appreciate any insight in my predicament.

Thank you so much!

Edit:

[Sasquatch]

What you're trying to do is a violation of your license agreement. It's an OEM version, so it's hardware bound. VB emulates a completely different set of hardware than the Host has. The moment you get your Vista going, it will ask for a reactivation and it will likely fail. You have you buy a separate Vista license to get it working properly, and all or most of your programs need to be installed again.

[peshom]

Oh!...

Well that's not good... "Violation of your license agreement!"

I know I am not supposed to run Vista as a HOST and at the same time (the same copy) as a GUEST OS, but isn't it ok if it is running only on ONE (even though virtual) machine? Since I will be using Ubuntu, Vista will run only one ONE computer.

Or is it a violation to use it on any other computer (virtual or not) that is specifically not the same computer I bought from the store?

Thanks!

[Sasquatch]

Your Vista is an OEM licensed copy. Read up what OEM means as a license form for MS products. Only one copy, on one set of hardware (in the case of the OS, Office is something else). A VM is a different set of hardware.

[peshom]

Oh I see what you are saying.

It's unfortunate, but what can I do. I guess I will be sticking to Vista for now...

Thank very much for the help.

[Sasquatch]

You can always do what you want. Use CloneZilla or something similar to create an image of the system partition which you can then restore in VB. No guarantee it will work properly though.

[mpack]

Your Vista is an OEM licensed copy. Read up what OEM means as a license form for MS products. Only one copy, on one set of hardware (in the case of the OS, Office is something else). A VM is a different set of hardware.

I don't believe that is an accurate statement Sasquatch. A VM is not physically different hardware, it is the same hardware with what amounts to an extra BIOS layer between it and the OS. It only appears as different hardware to the OS. Microsoft's position that a VM counts as different hardware has yet (AFAIK) to be tested in any court of law.

Of course, if you then move the VM to a different host then that is clearly a violation of an OEM license.

Legal nitpicking aside, the practical issue - that running an OEM copy of an MS OS in a VM may give you activation problems - is certainly real.

[peshom]

You can always do what you want. Use CloneZilla or something similar to create an image of the system partition which you can then restore in VB. No guarantee it will work properly though.

I had tried CloneZilla, but that got me even less close to being able to boot the VM than my trial with DriveImage XML .

Just for educational purposes though, does anyone see a reason why I would get that error? Even though the Vista Recovery says there are no problems with the boot?

Thanks.