raw Vista won't boot

[nabamer.]

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone could help me. Atm I have a dual boot setup with Fedora 9 and Vista. I am trying to create a vmdk file for the Vista partition (sda partition 3) so that I can virtualise Vista in Fedora.

I have used install-mbr to create an mbr for Vista and then created the vmdk file. I then registered the virtual machine in VirtualBox and ticked the 'Enable IO APIC' option. When I try to boot the virtualmachine it says

'MBR 2FA' - which I think means that I have to choose 2 (disk 2), f (floppy) or a (auto). Pushing 2 or F does nothing so I push 'A'
it then says 'MBR 1234F' which I thing means that I have to choose a partition (1,2,3,4) or floppy (f). If I choose 1,2 or F, nothing happens. If I choose 4 it returns to say 'MBR 2FA' and if I choose 3 (which I believe is the correct option) the resolution changes and then the virtualmachine restarts.

Is anyone able to help me?

Thanks!

[TerryE]

Yup, the virtual HDD uses its own MBR and not the raw MBR from the physical HDD. What you do in WinXP is to boot into the Vista Media recovery mode within your VMthen do Fixboot followed by FixMBR. This will fix up the virtual MBR.

I am not sure what the commands in Vista are (is this what install-MBR does?) but check the Vista forums. Anyway the main point is that you have to boot the recover disk inside the VM or you'lll get the wrong MBR.

[nabamer.]

Thanks for your help with the issue!

I have booted up the Vista cd, gone to recovery mode (which failed to find my windows installation) and then to the command prompt. I then ran

bootrec /rebuildbcd

however I get the following message:
Successfully scanned Windows installations
Total identified Windows installations: 1
[1] D:\Windows
Add installation to the boot list Yes(Y)/No(N)/All(A):
The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.


What should I do now?

Many thanks