URGENT: VM does not boot after delete all snapshots

[jorgitogutierre]

I'm using ESXI 5. After deleting all snapshots from a a windows 2003 virtual machine, it didn't boot anymore.

When I start the VM it shows the VmWare BIOS splash screen and then it stays black.

Any ideas? This never happened before!

Thanks!

[ProPenguin]

Can you boot the VM to an ISO?

[JESX35]

If you check the datastore where the VM is stored are all the snapshot files gone ? they are usally _0001 looking files.  It could be the merge of the snapshots back into the oringal VMDK is still running or taking awhile to complete the merger.  How long has it been since the task to delete the snapshots has finished

[jorgitogutierre]

- Yes. All snapshots are gone.

- The delete operations finished about an hour ago.

- I also tried restarting the ESXi host.

[continuum]

boot into BIOS and select the correct harddisk for booting

if that does not help - boot VM into a LiveCD and check if a partition is flagged as bootable and if the bootloader , ntldr, grub or whatever you used exists
if necessary fix missing files

[jorgitogutierre]

> Can you boot the VM to an ISO?

Yes, I tried booting with the Windows 2003 instalation ISO. It found the Windows partition.

But when I restarted the VM, Windows booted normally!!! Pardon me the expression, but WTF? I didn't do anything!

What happened?

Thanks for your time

[ProPenguin]

Oh the joys of working in IT.