How to fix BSOD "unmountable_boot_volume"

[nizzok]

Hi all,

I recently had my system power shut off while running an XP guest on a Karmic host. When I rebooted, I got the BSOD with withe error "unmountable_boot_volume." Has anyone encountered this, and have suggestions on how to fix this? The real-world solution would be to boot from a disk, which I don't have at present. Someone had suggested in response to another post, that I mount the broken vm as a drive on a new vm: any suggestions on how to do that?

thanks in advance.

[MarkCranness]

You can attach the broken virtual hard disk to an existing bootable VM, and use repair tools on that existing VM to repair the broken virtual hard disk.
To add the existing virtual hard disk to an existing VM (one that already boots), use menu : Settings > Storage > Click 'Add Attachment' (the + disk icon) > select the newly added disk in the tree > Select the broken virtual hard disk in the 'Hard Disk' dropdown to the right.
Did the broken VM have any snapshots? If so, read here how to find the correct VDI file to use in the dropdown after you also select the 'Differencing Disks' checkbox (those instructions are how to find the correct VDI to clone it. You don't want to clone it, but you will need to find the correct {hexUUID}.vdi file.)

You can also attach a Live CD or repair CD and boot the existing VM from that virtual repair CD and try any repair programs that may be present. UBCD4WIN is a good repair disk for Windows, but needs Windows XP install media and a running Windows PC to create / configure the rescue CD.

[nizzok]

thanks!

[nizzok]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your earlier response. I mounted the disk per your instructions and most of my user data was gone. None of my programs or files were in the files, my desktop was barren, and all that I could find were a couple of cookies. Any suggestions, or is this completely unscrewup-able?

[MarkCranness]

Did the broken VM have any snapshots? If so, DON'T modify the disk you have mounted so far!