Vritual Box Does not load VMs in Windows 8

[JorgeR]

Hello

I hope that you can help me with my issue. I had virtualbox running on my windows 8 host system. After I upgraded to version 4.2.18 my virtual machines refused to load, I had 2 Windows XP Pro Virtual Machines and one Ubuntu VM. I thought that maybe there was something wrong with my virtual machines, so I deleted them and proceeded to create new ones. Then virtualbox would not allow me to create new ones. I read some of the forum messages for similar problems other users may be having and tried a couple of solutions. Reinstalling the drivers manually and resetting permissions on the virtualbox drive with no success. I even copied other virtual machines that I had backup to an external drive and the same problem happens. Out of desperation I made my system a multiboot system by installing Windows 7 and then installing virtualbox on it. Everything worked fine for virtualbox version 4.2.18 when I created a new Windows XP virtual machine. I copied that virtual machine to the Windows 8 side and virtualbox refuses to load it. I tried uninstalling virtualbox in the Windows 8 side and it won't let me uninstall it. It complains about an msi file that it cannot find. Then I deleted virtualbox files from its directory and copied the files from the windows 7 installation, but still virtualbox does not load any virtual machines. I do not have a log file for the virtual machines that I deleted which I regret because that information is forever lost. I have all the error messages in a zip file, but I do not know how to attach files to my posting.

[mpack]

Try to undo changes you've made, restore everything to the state you were in when VMs refused to load. Concentrate on one VM, and provide proper diagnostic info for it, particularly a VM log file: for what we need see Minimum information needed for assistance.

[JorgeR]

Thanks for your quick reply. I am not home right now, but if I could undo the changes I made to make it work, I would. The only solution I see is to reformat my windows 8 partition and re-install. Not an option that I am looking forward to.

Thanks.

[JorgeR]

Hello

I figured out how to upload a zip file. The included zip file has all the errors that I get whenever I try to either create a new vm, load a vm, or look at vm settings. I should point out that I created a Windows XP Vm in Windows 7 as a host, then transferred a copy to the Windows 8 partition, and it does not load in Windows 8.

Thanks

[mpack]

Sorry, but if you've been messing around with the settings files, and you can't tell me what you did, then I'm not really willing to spend time chasing what are likely to be red herrings. Better to reinstall VBox, wipe all existing VMs and transfer the VMs again from your Win7 host.

For the correct way to move a VM please read Howto : Move a VM.

[JorgeR]

Thanks for your input. I understand since I also do software development. I went through the windows registry and deleted all references to virtualbox. That helped me because after I deleted all of virtualbox's files, I was able to install the latest version and the extension pack. Then all my virtual machines were able to load. Then to my dismay, my Internet connection refused to work on Windows 8. Apparently I have two copies of the virtual box network driver and the ip configuration is not set correctly. I tried to delete one of the drivers, but that did not work. So now I can run all my virtual machines, but I cannot access the internet. What should I try next?

[BillG]

I have never seen the network adapter problem (multiple versions) on Windows 8, although I did have a similar one with Windows 8.1 as a host. I think it is a problem with the network card driver in the host OS. What brand NIC does the host have? Can you find an updated Win 8 driver for it?

My problem was with an Intel Pro/1000 GT. Intel are not producing new drivers. Last full support was Win7 (which seemed OK with Win8 for me, but not with 8.1).

[JorgeR]

I have an intel network card, but I was referring to the virtualbox network driver that virtualbox creates when installed. I finally was able to eliminate the extra driver and my system is fully functional again including virtualbox. Thanks everyone for your input and thoughts.