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1 2 Previous Next 21 Replies Last post: Oct 10, 2005 11:36 AM by continuum

Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk posted: Sep 10, 2005 8:32 AM

nsalehi

41 posts since
Sep 10, 2005

I am running VMware 4.5.2 on my PC which has two SATA hard disks. This is a dual boot machine with the first Hard drive having WinXP Pro and the second one Fedora Core 3. There is no problem when I boot to Windows, but I would like to run WinXP as a guest and run Linux natively. So I created a guest OS and chose Physical Disk for the Windows location. Here is the hard disk setting:

Access Start Length Type
R/W 63 39.2G HPFS/NTFS
R/W 82268865 72.6G HPFS/NTFS

I also have created a new profile on Windows as suggested. However, when I start the virtual machine, I always see the following error message:

GRUB Hard Disk Error

I never managed to go beyond this point. I would appreciate it if someone could help me with the answer.

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

1. Sep 10, 2005 9:01 AM

in response to: nsalehi

KevinG

16,980 posts since
Jan 8, 2004

Hi nsalehi,

Not sure if you have already read these

http://www.vmware.com/support/ws45/doc/disks_dualboot_ws.html#1057441

http://www.vmware.com/support/ws45/doc/disks_2kmultiboot_ws.html#1046341

Note: VMware Workstation supports booting from raw disk partitions only on IDE drives. Booting guest operating systems from raw SCSI drives is not supported. For a discussion of the issues on a Linux host, see Configuring Dual- or Multiple-Boot SCSI Systems to Run with VMware Workstation on a Linux Host.

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

2. Sep 10, 2005 7:05 PM

in response to: KevinG

nsalehi

41 posts since
Sep 10, 2005

Hi KevinG,

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have read the documents. However, the hard disk is a 120GB WDC1200JD. This is an SATA drive so this should not be a SCSI issue. Now, the error message implies that it at least make an attempt to read the MBR which is on the first hard disk, ie. my Windows Hard Disk. Could the problem be something else?

Cheers

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

3. Sep 10, 2005 7:51 PM

in response to: nsalehi

petr

7,218 posts since
Jul 10, 2003

Try upgrading to WS5.0, it fixes some problems with SCSI BIOS and large drives (or use LILO instead of Grub). Or connect your raw disk as an IDE disk to the guest.

You must make all disks needed for boot available to the guest. If you have installed Grub on /boot partition on second drive, while you are using MBR from first disk, you must make both disks available to the guest, and both disks must use same BIOS drive numbers. Or Grub won't work.

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

4. Sep 15, 2005 9:16 AM

in response to: petr

nsalehi

41 posts since
Sep 10, 2005

Petr,

Thanks. The problem was me not making the boot partition available to VMware.

I am, however, still unable to boot successfully. After I select Windows in GRUB and after I choose my VMware profile in Windows, the following error message is displayed and the virtual machine shuts down:

"A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controller. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then retstart your computer.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF7B8524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"

I can boot my Windows partition with no problem. There is no viruse on my machine. Not knowing much about Windows, I am not sure how to proceed.

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

5. Sep 15, 2005 10:30 AM

in response to: nsalehi

petr

7,218 posts since
Jul 10, 2003

Technical information:

STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF7B8524, 0xC0000034,

0x00000000, 0x00000000)"

I can boot my Windows partition with no problem.
There is no viruse on my machine. Not knowing much
about Windows, I am not sure how to proceed.

Yes, it is normal with Windows. Search Microsoft knowledgebase for STOP 0000007B, you'll find some hints how to overcome this problem, but for most of configurations message Microsoft delivers to you is that you should really decide whether you want to use XP in the guest or on host - and if on host, stop messing with them, and if in the guest, then repair existing installation and forget about using your XPs on host...

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

6. Sep 30, 2005 11:45 PM

in response to: petr

nsalehi

41 posts since
Sep 10, 2005

Petr,

I got some time to look for some online documentation about this error. The documents suggested that in my VMware hardware profile, I need to change my IDE controllers from third party to Standard Dual channel PCI IDE controller. So these are the steps I took:

1. Booted natively to Windows XP
2. Created a copy of the original hardware profile. Let's call it VMware profile
3. Rebooted natively back to Windows XP, but chose the VMware profile.
4. Opened the Device Manager and selected the IDE Controller
5. Updated both hard disk drivers to Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE controller.
6. Booted natively into Linux.
7. Started VMware and ran Windows XP as guest.
8. Selected VMware profile.

However, I am still seeing the same STOP 0x0000007B problem.

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

7. Oct 1, 2005 9:54 AM

in response to: nsalehi

petr

7,218 posts since
Jul 10, 2003

And does your VM use IDE disks? Is not it configured to use SCSI disk connected to the LSILogic? If you use rawdisk SATA, I would expect that...

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

8. Oct 1, 2005 5:24 PM

in response to: petr

nsalehi

41 posts since
Sep 10, 2005

Petr,

Yes, I am using raw SATA. I even mentioned it on my Sep. 10th post. So what is it that I need to do?

Thank,
Nader

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

9. Oct 2, 2005 7:50 AM

in response to: nsalehi

continuum

12,680 posts since
Dec 18, 2003

Have a look at your raw-disk descriptor-file: it has a line that specifies the used adaptertype - iti s one out of : ide, lsilogic, buslogic.

Now boot your XP natively and look in devicemanager: your SATA-disks can be connected like Standard IDE-disks or they can be connected as SCSI-disks.
A device that connects as SCSI can connect as IDE in another installation- depending on the used drivers. So don't take anything for granted.

So now you should know what your native system uses - configure the VMsystem in the same way: if you need IDE rewrite the raw-disk-descriptor so that the used adapertype is IDE.
If you need SCSI rewrite the raw-disk-descriptorfile so that it says buslogic.

You need to add the VMware-SCSI-driver if your native XP uses SCSI. I usually do this by adding the driver manually.
First find the lowest free oem-inf number in the inf-directory and rename the inf that comes with the driver to something like oem11.inf (YMMV)
Then add the vmscsi.sys to system32\drivers.
Then make the driver known to the system like this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlSet001\Control\Class{4D36E97B-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000]
"InfPath"="oem11.inf"
"InfSection"="DDInstall"
"ProviderName"="VMware, Inc."
"DriverDateData"=hex:00,00,26,88,f2,c7,c2,01
"DriverDate"="1-30-2003"
"DriverVersion"="1.2.0.0"
"MatchingDeviceId"="pci
ven_104b&dev_1040"
"DriverDesc"="VMware SCSI Controller"

and

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_104b&dev_1040]
"Service"="vmscsi"

Well I guess now it leaves the trivial area - if you want more detailed instructions I need to know some more details.

Ulli

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

10. Oct 2, 2005 9:18 AM

in response to: continuum

petr

7,218 posts since
Jul 10, 2003

Nader, before copy-pasting continuum solution please make sure you remove spurious spaces from it - unfortunately it seems that current Jive version puts spaces to its output randomly

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

11. Oct 2, 2005 9:40 AM

in response to: petr

continuum

12,680 posts since
Dec 18, 2003

Oops - just trying if it looks better if I quote it ???

and

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ControlSet001\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase\pci#ven_104b&dev_1040]
"Service"="vmscsi"

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

12. Oct 2, 2005 9:49 AM

in response to: continuum

continuum

12,680 posts since
Dec 18, 2003

To bad - that doesn't help either - looks good in edit-mode but once posted the linebreaks are unpredictable.

Is it possible to quote something that needs to be exactly like the original???

Well this is strange - if you mark the quote and copy it to a new file the linebreak disappear but leave spaces.

Message was edited by:
continuum

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

13. Oct 2, 2005 10:52 PM

in response to: continuum

nsalehi

41 posts since
Sep 10, 2005

Uli & Petr,

Thank you both for the comments. I have to admit that I am a total Windows illiterate and there is not much I know about this OS. So let me ask you a few more questions.

1. The raw disk descriptor file in VMware shows "lsilogic". So I guess it means IDE raw disk. Is this correct?

2. My native Windows adapter is Intel 82801FB Ultra ATA Storage Controller, so both VMware and Windows XP are pointing to IDE controllers.

3. From what I understand from Uli's comments, I don't need to change anything in the VMware setting, and if my native XP is also pointing to IDE, then I'm home free. Obviously there is something wrong with my analysis, so could you please explain it to a Windows novice?

4. Regarding the oem*.inf and inf directory, where is this directory supposed to be? Is it in system or system32 or somewhere else? I also couldn't find any oem*.inf anywhere in my system.

Thanks,
Nader

Re: Unable To Load WinXP From Raw Disk

14. Oct 3, 2005 7:21 AM

in response to: nsalehi

continuum

12,680 posts since
Dec 18, 2003

Hi Nader
When you find "lsilogic" in the raw-disk descriptor, this means that the VMware_XP uses the disk as a SCSI-disk.
You are lucky - my computer uses the same SATA-controller - so I know that you can uses this one in VMware without having to tweak anything.
You just have to change the raw-disk descriptor so that I says 'ide' instead of 'lislogic'.

So I would recommend to create a new XP-VM with default settings - that means you will get a standard-IDE-disk. Nect thing to do is exchange the new blank disk with the raw-disk that you have already created and edited.

Then I would add the line
scsi0.present = "FALSE"
to your vmx-file (that's the file that you can double-click to start the VM - and that is used to order the ingredients of your VM-pizza)

After that your VM-XP should be able to boot. It will reboot 2 or 3 times until it has found all the new hardware. Then it will ask you to reactivate with Microsoft and once that is done it should work.

Ulli

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