http://www.fmsinc.com/MicrosoftAccess/Strategy/index.asp

I have on a few occasions created a Virtual Machine for VirtualBox by restoring an image from a physical machine backup.  More often than not this VM will not start but, rather, blue screens and shuts down or reboots.

This happens because old physical hardware does not match the new virtual hardware that runs inside the VM.   When device drivers load for non-existing or unexpected hardware Windows replies with a BSOD.

I recently discovered way to get around this that worked for me.  This may or may not work for you but it is worth a try.

1. Start the VM in safe mode.  (Hit the F8 Key until the boot menu comes up and choose the safe-mode option.)
2. If the VM starts in safe mode…great.  If not, I can’t help you.
3. In safe mode edit your Environment Variables and add the following:  DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES.  Set the Value = 1.
   (To Edit Environment Variables … Right Click My Computer and choose Properties.  Click the Advance tab.  Click the Environment Variables button)
4. Now start Device Manager.  (Start/Run devmgmt.msc)  Because of what you did in step 3, you will see a lot of devices that are greyed out or ghosted.  Delete all of them.  Close Device Manager.
5. Now Disable all non-Microsoft startup items.  (Start/Run msconfig).
6. Restart your VM.  If you can startup while NOT in safe mode…congratulations.  It worked.

PS.  You can re-enable your startup items again.  If you start to BSOD then disable them again and re-enable them one at a time till you find the bad guy.

Seth

EDIT – I tried this with one client but it didn’t work.  No missing devices were found in the device manager.  The machine would blue-screen and re-boot.  But the blue screen happened too quickly to actually see the blue screen error in the virtual machine.  To configure the virtual machine to not reboot after blue-screening do the following:

1. Open up System Properties.  (Right Click on My Computer and choose Properties).
2. Under Startup and Recovery click Settings.
3. Clear the checkbox that says Automatically Restart.

After setting this I was able to reboot the virtual machine and after googling the blue-screen error I was able to solve the problem.

Seth

If you want to MOUNT ISO files in Windows 7 or any other version of Windows, for that matter, check out the Pismo File Mount Audit Package. This software is…

• Extremely lightweight.
• Fast and Easy to use.
• Supports right-click of ISOs for mounting.  (Technofiles call this Windows Shell Integration.)
• Extremely Reliable.
• Free.

Let me know if you agree.

Seth