Windows Server 2008 R2

[Raere]

I'm having trouble installing Windows Server 2008 R2 (got it from MSDN as a student) as a guest OS.

I've tried on two different computers, both running Vista 64-bit as a host OS. CPUs are VT-capable and it's turned on. This is the error I keep getting:



The file from Microsoft is a .img file. I've tried mounting it directly in VirtualBox and burning it to a DVD and using the physical drive within VirtualBox. Can anyone explain the error message (no driver for an IDE DVD+RW drive?) and possible solutions? Or is this going to need to be fixed with a new release?

Thanks in advance!

[Sasquatch]

Try a different IDE controller emulation. This can be changed in the VM settings. Windows 2008 R2 is based on Windows 7, and that one installs without these problems, so it's really strange. Did you create the VM as Windows 7 or 2008? You might need the W7 profile settings.

[Martin]

You should also check that the DVD image was downloaded correctly. Sometimes just 2GB get downloaded and the broken image shows the same error message.

Martin

[Raere]

Good idea trying the Win7 profile, but that didn't work. I also tried all 3 IDE controllers. I tried actually booting the host computer itself from the DVD, and the same problem persisted. I'm pretty sure the image is good, because the downloader utility that MS provides checks the CRC after it finishes downloading. Furthermore, I've tried downloading it on two separate machines. I know it's not a good sign that my computer itself gets the same error, but perhaps the DVD really doesn't have the drivers for the optical drive that Virtualbox emulates (and for that matter, my computer's drive either). It would be very helpful if someone with Server 2008 R2 RTM could double-check this. It could very well just be me, but if someone else has the same problem, that could mean that there's something wrong in Virtualbox. Or at least perhaps there are drivers available for the optical drive in Virtualbox that I could try slipstreaming?

Thanks again!

[Perryg]

Running Windows 2008 server (set to data center) in Vista 32 bit no problem. Also I have Windows 2008 server enterprise in 64 bit working (Ubuntu 64 Host) just fine. No errors on either one. I did not use a download helper/manager though because they do cause the exact problem that you are seeing regardless of what the DL manager says.

[Sasquatch]

One thing though. The ISO cannot be downloaded with IE, because it's larger than 2 GB, and IE can't handle that. I advise you to use Opera, I've never had any issues with that and I like it, but you can use FireFox too.

[Raere]

The thing is that MS makes you use download a seperate program which then downloads the image for you. I'd love nothing more than to just download it directly with Firefox or something, but you have to use their program because you can only download the image a certain number of times. And, like I said before, it does a CRC check after the image finishes downloading. I got the Win 7 Pro RTM the exact same way, and that went fine. If other people are saying Server 2008 R2 installs fine for them, then it must be something with my image. Thanks for the help, I guess the problem isn't Virtualbox related afterall.

[muotioj]

Hmm, i have same problem. What i find strange is that all other disk images i have downloaded from msdnaa are .iso but this one is .img..

So those of you whom have got it installed, where have you got your disk image?

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

I am having the same issues as well. I got my image from MSDNAA and it's just over 2 GB. I was informed of the 2GB max download problem and i was told that a workaround is to stop the download every 1/3 of the process; however, that didn't work. I got the same .img file i got before. It seems to me that there is a bug in the MSDNAA image. I don't know why it is a .img file instead of an .iso like usual. I have tried converting the image to an .iso to see if that would fix the problem, but it didn't. Someone else said that disabling IDE emulation in your bios fixes it, but we don't have that option in VirtualBox. I have only tried installing it in VirtualBox, but since someone has already tried it on a host system, it's not looking good.

[Sasquatch]

Here at my work we have MSDN too, but I can't run 64 bit Guests and that's the only version we have right now. I might ask a colleague to download the 32 bits version for me and test the installer, but I doubt I will hit a problem. The 64 bit image is an .iso.

[caldo_de_cana]

The MSDNAA Downloader is not good at all. I have wasted well over 20Gb of bandwidth trying the download from different computers and different networks, having to ask for my download limit to be raised more than once (it takes them days to reply). The checksum it does is completely useless, it will happily give you an empty file and say it's ok. You must run a checksum yourself and compare against the values listed here: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1559001
In case that page goes down at some point in time and someone ends up in this post and wants the checksums, I copy them here:

eng_windows_server_2008_r2_st_ent_dc_web_retail_x64_X15-50365.img
2996783104 bytes

CRC32: 8F94460B
MD5: 0FFBAE83327F0AD8C2AB4D5DFA754C09
SHA1: A548D6743129F2A02C907D2758773A1F6BB1BCD7
SHA256: 4c6604cde90a7c44b3cc990884b1fd428883281d0dfbf4e55f6a9f82a1092a6f

The way I finally got it working was using dreamspark.com to download from the web (not the Downloader) using Google Chrome. Install worked using Windows 7 (64-bit) in Virtualbox.

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

Props to caldo_de_cana for the DreamSpark idea. I didn't know i could pull the image from there. Either the downloader for MSDNAA is messed up or the image it's distributing is corrupt. Nice work! Thanks.

[BillG]

Here at my work we have MSDN too, but I can't run 64 bit Guests and that's the only version we have right now. I might ask a colleague to download the 32 bits version for me and test the installer, but I doubt I will hit a problem. The 64 bit image is an .iso.

There is no 32-bit version of Server 2008 R2. This and following versions of the server OS are 64-bit only.

[Sasquatch]

Here at my work we have MSDN too, but I can't run 64 bit Guests and that's the only version we have right now. I might ask a colleague to download the 32 bits version for me and test the installer, but I doubt I will hit a problem. The 64 bit image is an .iso.

There is no 32-bit version of Server 2008 R2. This and following versions of the server OS are 64-bit only.

Thanks for the info. I haven't asked yet, so now I won't look like an idiot . I'll see later how the install goes, just for my own interest, as the original question is solved, it was a corrupt file.

[vbox4me2]

There is no 32-bit version of Server 2008 R2. This and following versions of the server OS are 64-bit only.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Server_2008

Microsoft has announced that Windows Server 2008 is the last 32-bit Windows server operating system.[21] Windows Server 2008 is available in the editions listed below,[22] similar to Windows Server 2003.

Windows Server 2008 Standard (x86 and x86-64)
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise (x86 and x86-64)
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter (x86 and x86-64)