Could Not Read from boot medium error started appearing

[13Jibber]

I am virtualizing windows XP on my Mac (OSX Snow Leopard), and everything was working fine until earlier today, when I changed some settings and the "FATAL ERROR: Could not read from boot medium! System Halted" message was coming up when I tried to start the virtual machine. I've changed the settings back to how they were before and the problem is still happening. What could be causing it?

[Perryg]

What was the setting you changed and to what and back to what?

[13Jibber]

I just modified the Video RAM and Base memory, but I changed them back to the settings that worked before right after it didn't work first time.

[Perryg]

That should not have caused this.
Areas that could are:

• (1) storage controller PIIX3 to PIIX4 or Vice Versa
  (2) Turning IO APIC on when it was off to start with. Causes Windows to try to load the SMP kernel.
  (3) Turning VT-x/AMD-v off might cause this too if it was set on to begin with or Vice Versa.

[13Jibber]

I might have accidentally toggled one of those when I was changing settings, but I've tried all the combinations of those options and I still get the same error.

[Perryg]

Can you run this from a host terminal/command windows VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use "" if the name has a space in it.

Also from what I have heard about a MAC isn't it possible to take it back in time and fix this?

[13Jibber]

I don't back up with time machine, so I can't go back in time unfortunately.

The command line thing seems to come up with an Error, But I'm sure I did it right.

VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.12
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

ERROR: Could not find a registered machine named 'A Computer'
Details: code VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80bb0001), component VirtualBox, interface IVirtualBox, callee nsISupports
Context: "FindMachine (Bstr(VMNameOrUuid), machine.asOutParam())" at line 1992 of file VBoxManageInfo.cpp

[dmcgraw]

Can you please show us the exact command you typed, not just the error output?

[13Jibber]

Code: Select all

VBoxManage showvminfo "A Computer"

A Computer is the name of the virtual Machine.

[Perryg]

What does VBoxManage list vms give you?
Please post here.

[13Jibber]

Code: Select all

> VBoxManage list vms
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.12
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

"A Computer " {2a5d6a04-d4a1-4386-919c-a35b196ee577}

EDIT: Figured out there should be a space at the end of the name for some reason. Here's the information when I type in ' VBoxManage showvminfo "A Computer " '

Code: Select all

Name:            A Computer 
Guest OS:        Windows XP
UUID:            2a5d6a04-d4a1-4386-919c-a35b196ee577
Config file:     /Users/Ruben/Library/VirtualBox/Machines/A Computer /A Computer .xml
Memory size:     512MB
VRAM size:       32MB
Number of CPUs:  1
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
Boot Device (1): Floppy
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          on
PAE:             off
Time offset:     0 ms
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Nested Paging:   on
VT-x VPID:       on
State:           powered off (since 2010-02-16T21:07:07.000000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: on
Floppy:          empty
SATA:            disabled
DVD:             /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso (UUID: 7e050c08-ae3d-4ea3-9ae5-5f60f99efc23)
NIC 1:           MAC: 080027DC3D4B, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: Am79C973, Reported speed: 0 Mbps
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
Audio:           enabled (Driver: CoreAudio, Controller: AC97)
Clipboard Mode:  Bidirectional
VRDP:            disabled
USB:             enabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Shared folders:  

Name: 'Ruben', Host path: '/Users/Ruben' (machine mapping), writable

Guest:

Statistics update:                   disabled

[Perryg]

What version of VirtualBox are you using?
I don't see that the VM is attached to any storage controller in this.

[13Jibber]

I'm using version 3.0.12. I upgraded a while ago but I started having problems with a certain game I was playing, so I downgraded again. I'm willing to live with an upgrade if it fixes it though.

[Perryg]

Start the VirtualBox main GUI and then go to file -> media manager.
Under the Hard Drives do you see the VDI file and is it attached to anything?
(I am on version 3.1.4 and since you are on an older version it does make it harder since I must do this from memory)

[Jeffry_KU]

I am also having the same problem.

My .vdi is attached to the only VM I have created on the problem machine.

I have also tried to mount and .iso of my Win7 media as a dvd-rom and I am still having the same problem.

I am trying to use an iMac 8,1

It is running Mac OS 10.5.8. The OS has all current updates from Apple.