virtualbox.org

I am trying to get this working for a friend. This is my first attempt to use a Virtual Machine.

My goal is to use a VM to run a Win7 guest inside the Win10 host, in order to make it easier for my friend to transition from Win7 to Win10. I am expecting that using the VM would be easier than using the dual boot. I like the idea that by making a copy of Disk 0 into a vhd allows me to test this VM idea without any risk of causing problems to the native boot Win7. Backups happen regularly for both Win7 & Win10.

There is only one computer involved, and I don't know if that is causing the problem.
It has dual-boot working: Disk 0 has the pre-installed Windows 7 32-bit (Home was upgraded to) Professional, and Disk 1 has Windows 10 64-bit Professional (not an upgrade from Win7).
In Windows 10 I used Disk2Vhd to copy Disk 0 into the vhd file, which I put onto Disk 1. I was not able to run Disk2Vhd in Windows 7 (some error about the Shadow Copy service).
VirtualBox is installed in Windows 10.

When I start VirtualBox everything seems fine. When I start the VM (set to use the vhd containing a copy of Disk 0) I get the Boot Manager screen and select the Win7, and then I get the BSOD Stop error 7b.

I do have a Win7 Repair Disk and can boot that inside the VM. Also inside the VM at the Boot Manager screen I can get into the Repair functions (so it is getting that from the vhd file). I can run DiskPart to see and change the 4 partitions and volumes. When I use DiskPart to make changes then those changes do not seem to be saved. The Recovery volume is getting C (should not have a drive letter), and the Win7 volume is getting E (should be C). I can use BcdEdit and everything looks the same as for native boot. There is no difference when I change between IDE or SATA.
In Win7 or Win10 I can attach the vhd file, but I have to use DiskPart to change the serial number first. The VM can use the vhd file without changing the serial number.

Would I be better off to skip the vhd and have the VM use Disk 0 directly?
Are there any suggestions to get this to work? Since this is my friend's computer I may not be able to answer any questions quickly.
Thanks

Rick-1 wrote: Would I be better off to skip the vhd and have the VM use Disk 0 directly?

Absolutely not - at least not unless you want to kill the Win7 system.

You chose a very complex case for a first VM: a P2V (physical to virtual migration) of a Win7 host which is set up for dual booting. Presumably the boot selection is configured on drive 0 and the fact that it sees some drives missing on a VM boot could easily be the reason for the error.

Even if you got it to boot, it would see hardware changes which would cause it to deactivate.

How about if you simply installed Win7 in a VM? Why does it need to be a P2V job? Are you trying to save the $10 for a cheap eBay license?

mpack wrote: Why does it need to be a P2V job?

My friend's present situation does not allow him to be learning a bunch of new things right now. Back when I moved him from WinXP to Win7 I spent a bunch of time making things work as similar as possible, and am repeating that work to move from Win7 to Win10. He likes some really old programs that I am not familiar with, so I want to have the situation be that when he finds something different in Win10 he can just make a note about it and quickly jump back to Win7 to do whatever he needs.

So this big silence seems to tell me that P2V is either not possible, or else not worth the effort. That is a shame because it seemed like the best solution for my friend.

P2V is possible, but it's also tricky. When dealing either with P2V or rawdisk (like your idea), I always prefer to address the whole disk, not parts of it. Makes this less error prone.

Having said that, my first P2V (and essentially my only one) was of a dual boot system, with WinNT4 and Mandriva. 8 GB total, over an IDE-to-USB connection from another computer. No problems, still going strong.

I know I'm not helping you with your specific problem, but I would avoid DiskPart and stick only with troubleshooting the 0x7b error from within the VM.

Rick-1 wrote:So this big silence seems to tell me that P2V is either not possible, or else not worth the effort.

The silence indicated that I don't have anything useful to add to my previous post. P2V's can be tricky, and you chose a particularly tricky example. There are no shortcuts to you working out the specific problem in your case. You seemed to already be aware of the generic facts, i.e. what "Stop 0x7B" means, plus you rejected the easier solution I proposed.

The end of this story is going to be that P2V is too complicated for me. I will admit defeat.

My best guess is that when the dual boot situation was created by adding Windows 10 to the computer already running Windows 7, then some of the boot files must have been moved to Disk 1, and therefore cannot be included into the VHD of Disk 0. This is the only time that I have not been able to fix a Windows boot problem.