14 Replies Latest reply on Sep 27, 2017 8:11 PM by Vriley

VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

MrBromden Jul 5, 2013 4:16 PM

Hello everyone,

I hope that someone has come across a similar issue and I will be able to resolve the problem.

I have a VM (Windows 2008 R2 STD), 4 GB of RAM and 2 vCPUs, 2 drives (one system – 50 GB, and one swap – 8 GB). Nothing special.

The VM was restarted couple of days ago and after that I cannot get into Windows. I get System Recovery Options box. I noticed that all drive letters are mixed up (lease see file attached). I have tried to assign the correct drive letters using diskpart utility, but after a restart it goes back again.

I would greatly appreciate your help on the issue.

Kind Regards,

System Recovery Options.pdf 251.4 K

1. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

AakashJ Jul 6, 2013 1:08 AM (in response to MrBromden)

it can be an image issue... but try cloning the machine after you fix the drive letters and check if the same issue happens...
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2. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

MrBromden Jul 6, 2013 10:52 PM (in response to MrBromden)

Hi AkashH,

Thank you for your reply.
I have tried clonning the VM but. After I run the diskpart utility is OK. However, after a restart of the VM they are again all over the place. I have tried clonning it but since the drive letters are messed up it just replicates the issue.
A co-worker suggested that it might be Storage DRS. He thinks that by moving files (vmdk) around somehow SDRS scewes up the partition table. I said it is complete rubbish, SDRS has nothing to do with it. Anyway. I shall wait to see if someone else has come across this issue.

Regards,
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3. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

a.p. Jul 7, 2013 3:05 AM (in response to MrBromden)

What kind of installation image did you use for the VM? It's kind of unusual to have a system recover partition (the 49GB partition) in a VM!?
It also looks like the VM has a DVD attached, please make the VM does not accidentally boot from the DVD rather than from disk.

André
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4. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

MrBromden Jul 7, 2013 1:17 PM (in response to a.p.)

Hello Andre,

Thank you for the reply.

The VM is a part of a clustered application, which is in a testing mode. The first VM is fine and has all applications loaded wheres this one keeps failing. Both VMs are created from the same template. Both VMs have two drives (C:\ - 50 GB, and Z:\ Pagefile). See file attached.
As far as the DVD is concerned I have attached it just for testing.
I have restarted the VM various times with or without the DVD attached.
Also, after I removed/assigned drive letters with diskpart utility I shutdown the machine and cloned it. No joy unfortunately.
I want to get to the bottom of this for this VM is a test VM, and soon is going into production, and I will be in trouble if this carries on.

Kind Regards,
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5. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

AakashJ Jul 7, 2013 9:03 PM (in response to MrBromden)

Check this link http://communities.vmware.com/message/1439351#1439351
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6. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

MrBromden Jul 7, 2013 11:32 PM (in response to AakashJ)

Hello AakashJ,

Thank you for your response.
The VM is not a domain controller and it has not been converted. It was created from a template and as I said in my previous post the other VM is fine, whereas this VM keeps going into System Recovery Options.

Kind Regards,
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7. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

EvandroBCruz Jan 13, 2014 5:38 AM (in response to MrBromden)

Hello,

I'm facing the same issue, and I have no idea of what is causing this issue. I would like to know if somebody have any suggestion.

Many Thanks!!
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8. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

homerzzz Jan 13, 2014 7:42 AM (in response to MrBromden)

When you are in diskpart utility, select volume 1 and type attributes volume. What is the value of "No Default Drive Letter"? It should be "Yes"
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9. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

enggaurav20 Oct 1, 2014 5:27 AM (in response to homerzzz)

I am facing same issue. Not able to find any solution and this is the only blog where I found exact problem. Can any one please suggest me the solution. Its very urgent as one critical system is doing the same thing.

Thanks!
Gaurav Arora
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10. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

prmstar Jan 28, 2016 3:48 AM (in response to MrBromden)

Hi

We have a customer with exactly the same issue , after restart of the VM's it goes directly in recovery mode , we have found that some .DLL files also are missing on those Win2008/2012R2 servers .

Microsoft haven't either been able to see whats causing this issue .

Regards
Patrik
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11. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

minor76 Jan 28, 2016 7:02 AM (in response to MrBromden)

I had this problem a while back when deploying from a template. So I scrapped all my templates and created .ovf or ova's instead and I haven't had corrupted installs. I unfortunately don't have an explanation but that Is something you might want to consider.
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12. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

Andre P Claus Mar 1, 2016 6:29 AM (in response to minor76)

Anyone find a solution to this issue?
I deployed a new Windows 2008 r2 server from CD (old fashion way) two weeks ago and just now it restarted right in front of my eyes and came up with the system recovery option. I didn't work from a template or anything like that. This, by the way, is the second server that had that problem today. Both created from scratch.
Luckily I have made backups of the servers so restoring them is no big deal (one is a printer server) but I hope this is not going to happen often.

Does anyone know why this is happening?
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13. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

Mostafa_Dehsangi Apr 3, 2017 3:18 AM (in response to MrBromden)

Hi,
Recently, I had the same problem. I found out that when the disks have been detached and attached again, this issue had been resolved. It worked for me very well.
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14. Re: VM goes into System Recovery mode after reboot

Vriley Sep 27, 2017 8:11 PM (in response to MrBromden)

Hello guys/gals,

I had the same problem. My solution, which I read above, was to remove the VM from the enclave, go to the vmx file (on my NAS) and re-add the VM to the inventory. I have successfully rebooted several times since.

Thanks for all of your inputs. Have a great day.
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