Guest machine (WinServ2003) doesnt start system loading

[nzworldwide]

Hello,

I've got VM host on OpenSuse server and several guest machines (1 Linux, 2 Windows server).

One virtual machine (WinServer2003) is starting, but after showing VirtualBox intro screen there is a black screen with key cursor on top-left corner (not blinking). And that's it, no options to boot in Safe mode or something else.
Other machines are working properly.

Please help, im out of ideas after 2 days of surfing web.

[scottgus1]

Take a look at Minimum Info Needed for Assistance and we'll see what can be done.

[nzworldwide]

Sorry, attached to this message (in txt format)

[scottgus1]

Could you also please post a log from that 2003 guest? Thanks!

[nzworldwide]

Attached to this message. If need something more, just say, ill try to provide all needed info

[scottgus1]

I don't see a glaring issue in the log. Others might, though.

I see some attempts to hit keys to go into Safe Mode perhaps? F2, maybe Insert, C? And some resets.
F8 is the Safe-mode key for Windows OS's. Try that and see what might happen.

I also see what looks like a boot from a CD-rom. Did that get the boot-CD OS running in the guest?

[nzworldwide]

Yes, i was trying F8 also - nothing happened.

Also was trying to boot from CD (WinServer2003.iso and some other repair tools), but they didnt help at all.

[scottgus1]

trying F8 also - nothing happened.

That aint good...

trying to boot from CD ... but they didnt help at all.

Did they actualy boot, though? Did the CD's OS start?

[nzworldwide]

Did they actualy boot, though? Did the CD's OS start?

Yes, CD's OS is starting properly..

Of course the easiest way is to create a new Guest OS and move all files from the problem one, but i cant reinstall and configure all the programs sadly

So the only way for me is to recover this Guest machine.

I can say what i've tried already(with no result):
- do a copy of disk image (in Standart mode, the original one is fixed)
- use image (.vdi) on another machines.(same thing if i boot from it, but it can be the second drive).
- change from x32 to x64
- some different utilities for Windows(which didn't help).

[scottgus1]

Hmm, this is sounding worse unfortunately.
If the bootable CD boots but the virtual drive does not, then the problem is very likely within the guest OS, not with Virtualbox.

Did anything change on the host PC in the last couple days? Updates? Did the PC crash while the guest was running? Defrag attempt, etc.?

Adding the guest's vdi to another guest would confirm that the .vdi container is still good and that data can be pulled off.

I don't think that changing the guest from 32-bit to 64-bit or making a dynamic clone of the fixed-size vdi are likely to help.

This is starting to look like you'd need to forget this is a Virtualbox guest and troubleshoot the guest OS as if it were installed on a real PC. This sort of thing does happen to real PC OS's too. Can you run a "repair"from the Server 2003 install CD? Take good backups before attempting troubleshooting on the guest OS directly. (The log doesn't report you were using snapshots, so a simple disk copy of the guest vdi file looks like it would do as a backup. See Moving a VM, interpreted as 'Backing Up a VM' for a reliable backup even for a different host.)

[mpack]

Black screen on boot with XP/Win2k3 often means that you need to toggle the IO APIC setting.

This can only arise if an existing install is moved to a new VM, as XP doesn't really care what the IOAPIC setting is, but you can't change it after installation.

[nzworldwide]

Hmm, this is sounding worse unfortunately.
If the bootable CD boots but the virtual drive does not, then the problem is very likely within the guest OS, not with Virtualbox....

I was trying to repair from install CD, but it made no effect..
Anyway thank you very much dude, i ll try more to fix guest OS. I will post the solution here if i ll reach it

[nzworldwide]

Black screen on boot with XP/Win2k3 often means that you need to toggle the IO APIC setting.

This can only arise if an existing install is moved to a new VM, as XP doesn't really care what the IOAPIC setting is, but you can't change it after installation.

Thank you for advice but unfortunately it didn't help..

[mpack]

In that case I need more detail on why the VM failed. What has changed since it last worked?

Also, given that you're still using VirtualBox 4.3.40, I assume this VM is very old. When was your last full backup?