Black Scrren and white cursor

[BGsingh]

I had to restore VMDK's from corrupted discs and successfully done so with the help of a highly reputed data recovery organization. Post creating the virtual machine I get the Black Screen with white cursor on the top left corner. The VMDK size looks good and repeatedly tested by the recovery chaps and they ensure the VMDK's are intact. Anyone have any idea on how to boot the systems? This is on VMWars Exsi 5.5 and the host machines are windows 7.

Attached is the vmx for your kind review.

Kindly assist.

[a_p_]

The blinking cursor you see is usually caused by either an issue with the Master Boot Record, or the boot partition not being marked as "Active".

For how to repair the bootsector see Use Bootrec.exe in the Windows RE to troubleshoot startup issues

Ensure you have a backup (or at least create a snapshot) of the VM prior to running the repair.

André

[BGsingh]

I so much appreciate you responding to my post. Could you please elaborate on how do i proceed with repairing my vmdk? Should i have the ISO for windows 7 in the data store and execute the setup.exe? If yes, how do i let the installation know my location of the file? Or is there any key to be pressed during VM boot up. I would appreciate if you can give me some simple steps and excuse my limited knowledge on this.

Thanks,

[a_p_]

What you need to do is to boot the VM from the Windows 7 DVD/ISO. Do do this edit the VM's virtual CD-ROM setting appropriately, and as soon as the VM shows the boot screen, press the "ESC" key which will provide you with a boot menu from which you can select the CD-ROM drive. Once the VM boots from its CD-ROM drive, follow the steps from the link I posted in my previous reply.

Again: I'd strongly recommend to create a snapshot for the VM, so that you can revert to the current state if things don't work as expected.

André

[BGsingh]

Thanks, let me follow the steps and update this thread.

[BGsingh]

No luck, here are the few screenshots that might give some idea on the issue.

Could you kindly review  Capture 2 - the partition size 0 - is that normal?

Capture.jpg - says 0 Windows Installations..i have followed all steps provided by you. Anything I am missing?

[a_p_]

Partition size 0 doesn't look very promising. What you could do is to either attach the virtual disk to a helper VM (e.g. another Win7 VM) as an addtional virtual disk, or to mount it on your local desktop using vmware-mount utility.

André

PS: Discussion moved from VMware Fusion® (for Mac) to VMware ESXi 5

[BGsingh]

Few more screenshots -FYI

[a_p_]

The virtual BIOS settings are ok. You don't have an IDE disk, so there's no entry for the Primary master, and SCSI (0:0) is the first port on the virtual SCSI adapter to which the virtual disk is connected.

André

[MBrownWFP]

I had a 2008 R2 VM fail to come online yesterday ("Bootmgr is missing"). The standard Bootrec commands could not detect the OS install and had no effect, however the Startup Repair utility corrected the problem and the server booted up just fine.

Boot to the ISO, select Repair and the OS partition then launch the Recovery Mode command prompt. CD to x:\sources\recovery and run startrep.exe to launch the Startup Repair tool.

FYI I had to run the Startup Repair twice, first time time it came back as clean but after a reboot and a second run it found and corrected the issue. Because Microsoft...

[BGsingh]

MBrownFP,

I have attached capture7.jpg - did you face this? Also did you see it as D:\ as I see that and suspects me that repair is not looking a the correct place. Any inputs would be much appreciated.

Regards,

[BGsingh]

Attached is the BCDEdit  settings - any ideas?

[vNEX]

Hi,

it looks you have wrong BCD store entries ... for device in Windows Boot Manager there should be reference to the volume (partition=\Device\HarddiskVolumeX) instead...of drive letter.

Also Boot Loader device should usually points to C:

From recovery command prompt (X:\Sources) run following commands:

Diskpart

DISKPART> select disk 0

DISKPART> list volume

please post the output.

Once you will have more info about existing volumes we can try to change this entry through this command:

Bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolumeX

with this you can repair Windows Boot Loader entry:

Bcdedit /set {default} device partition=C:

Once the BCD store will be corrected run these commands and reboot:

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

bootsect /nt60 SYS

[BGsingh]

Vnex, Let me try this and update this thread. Thanks for your inputs.

[BGsingh]

capture9.jpg > diskpart output

capture10.jpg > Bcdedit /set {bootmgr} error

However

following commands were executed:

Bcdedit /set {default} device partition=C:

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

bootsect /nt60 SYS

and still have the same issue.

Please assist,

[BGsingh]

Please ignore earlier snapshot for diskpart -kindly refer the capture11.jpg - this shows the disk (D:) as RAW

any thoughts?

[BGsingh]

Bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2 was executed and it successfully executed - sorry i was yet appending X towards the end - totally going crazy!

Post all the commands the bcdedit looks like capture12.jpg and doesn't change the device values under [bootmgr] - stubborn behavior.

Regards,

[BGsingh]

Just saw the partition is corrupt

Update in Capture13.jpg

[a_p_]

Out of curiosity, can you please run

diskpart

list vol

select vol <Number of the D volume>

detail partition

and post the output. I'm interested in the partition type. If this is not already "07" it may be worth a try to change it to "07" (NTFS) by running

set id=0x07

With a backup or snapshot in place you can always revert if it doesn't change anything.

André

[vNEX]

Hi BG,

Out of momentum 😉

if you see RAW as volume Fs its an empty unformatted volume (not your case), could be encrypted volume (BitLocker is unsupported..3rd party??) or simple corrupted partition table.

As a.p. points out try to print actual partition ID then ... based on your findings we can continue further.

An additional question ... have you previously configured disk as dynamic or doesn't touch that...so it remains as basic?

Besides the assumed partition table problem try to repair your BCD entry once again...regarding your prtscreen post

-> your system partition is volume 1 (C: letter) so Windows Boot Manager "device" should point to this place ... to correct it run this command:

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:  this will point to the system boot loader files

next you have to correct boot partition pointers

-> your boot partition is volume 2 (D: letter)

bcdedit /set {default} device partition=D: this will point to the operating system files

Once this is done verify if system partition is marked as active ->

Diskpart> select disk 0

Diskpart> select partition 1

Diskpart> detail partition

Partition 0

Type : 07

Hidden: No

Active: Yes

If not ...mark it as active (when is selected) with this command:

Diskpart> active

If any method doesn't resolve your issue try to verify content of .vmdk file by mounting it through VMware Disk Mount utility download here: VDDK for vSphere 5.5 - VMware Developer Center or via VMware Workstation.

For system partition (volume 1 ; labeled as recovery) there should be (hidden system folders/files) two folders named "Boot" (contains BCD database), "Recovery" (contains Win RE) and also bootmgr, bootsect.bak files...

Regarding the failed bootsect repair try it again with force volume dismount: bootsect /nt60 sys /force

Ping back with results

Good Luck!