Failed import of Virtual PC drive

[Lucazade]

Hi,

When trying to use a Virtual PC VHD drive I get the following error:

Failed to open the hard disk C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Mode 1.vhd.

Parent medium with UUID {503ed2a1-45c8-9c40-9c73-6c3a6fae50d7} of the medium 'C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Mode 1.vhd' is not found in the media registry ('C:\Users\xxxxxx/.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml').

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Medium
Interface: IMedium {29989373-b111-4654-8493-2e1176cba890}
Callee: IVirtualBox {3b2f08eb-b810-4715-bee0-bb06b9880ad2}
Callee RC: VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80BB0001)

Virtual PC loads the VHD files without problems. The host computer is a Dell laptop running Windows 7 x64. Any help appreciated.

Cheers.

[mpack]

The message means that the VHD is not stand alone. It's a difference image when relies on a parent disk which you have not provided. Naturally VirtualPC knows where the parent disk is stored, since it stored it there.

[BillG]

Windows Virtual PC XP Mode always uses a base disk. Are you trying to run XP Mode in VirtualBox?

[Lucazade]

@mpack, @BillG - Yes, the disk with the application that I need to run was created by making a copy of the original VHD file. It seems this created a bit of a messy configuration.

I've looked at the three .vmc files in C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines, and these are the paths I've found ...

Windows XP Mode 1.vmc:
<pathname>
<absolute type="string">C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Mode 1.vhd</absolute>
<relative type="string">.\Windows XP Mode 1.vhd</relative>
</pathname>

Windows XP Mode 1 - App.vmc:
<pathname>
<absolute type="string">C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\Windows XP Mode 1.vhd</absolute>
<relative type="string">.\Windows XP Mode 1.vhd</relative>
</pathname>

App.vmc:
<pathname>
<absolute type="string">C:\Users\xxxxxx\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Virtual PC\Virtual Machines\App.vhd</absolute>
<relative type="string">.\App.vhd</relative>
</pathname>

The only drive I can add to VirtualBox is App.vhd (the other two give me errors similar to the one in the original post), but when I boot the VM I get a halting error that the disk is not bootable.

Should I change one of the .vmc files to use a different pathname, and if so, which one?

thanks.

[mpack]

You need to do more than correct a pathname, you need to provide all of the necessary files, i.e. both child and parent VHDs. I expect the "app.vhd" image is a non-bootable 2nd drive or backup VHD - whether the VM needs that as well I couldn't tell you.

To save you some time, you should also perhaps be made aware that XP mode VHDs are, I believe, not portable between hosts. The VM will see hardware changes and require reactivation, which will fail because "BIOS" information is incorrect (wrong host). At the time XP mode came out the VBox people cooperated with Microsoft: they would be able to run XP mode VMs on the original host (config problems like yours aside), but would not attempt to defeat the copy protection checks on the wrong hosts. You will understand I expect that XP mode is unusual in that the guest OS knows it is a VM.


Personally, although I do have a Win7 PC at work which has XP mode, I've never bothered to use it. I am less restricted by VirtualBox, for which I bought a VM-only XP license.