virtualbox.org

I'd like to suggest an update to the VB manual, in Chp.5 on Hard Disk Controllers.

I've just spent many hours trying to migrate a physical Vista install to a VM, and getting nothing but either a system hung at a blank screen, or a STOP 0x7B BSOD. I'd accepted VB's default selection of a SATA controller for the VM's disk because the VB manual says that AHCI/SATA support is included in Vista. However, the manual should also reference MS KB922976 ("Error message when you start a Windows 7 or Windows Vista-based computer after you change the SATA mode of the boot drive: "STOP 0x0000007B INACCESSABLE_BOOT_DEVICE"): in a P2V migration Vista/Win7's SATA controller will be disabled if it wasn't used in the physical system.

The fix is to either change the VM to use the IDE controller for the VM's disk, or boot the VM using a Vista rescue CD and manually change the VM's registry following KB922976 to enable the AHCI controller. (I did both, starting with the IDE controller, then enabling the AHCI driver and switching to the SATA controller.)

jdw13 wrote:if it wasn't used in the physical system.

I think this should be considered the default, never assume anything else but IDE was used, period.
Adding afterwards the proper drivers sata or scsi is easy.