Windows WM on Mac - BSOD - Memory Management / Inaccessible Boot Device

[cantim]

I'm trying to reopen a previously working Windows 8 VM.

Running on Big Sur and after reformatting the HD the VM is in a continual boot loop. I've tried every windows option including all the restore, report options. This Windows version was an upgrade from windows 7 and I no longer have the product keys, and having spent a while with MS support and them giving me some keys to try it seems win 7 is too old for them to be fully able to help. I am therefore desperately hoping that I can get this VM back working again.

I am taking copies of the VM and trying to open that. 

Here is what is happening,

When I open the VM the last excel page is visible greyed out while the VM loads. (Clicking I copied it). 

When it loads it immediately crashes with a BSOD and a "Stop Code:" message of Memory Management.

When it reboots it immediately crashed with another BSOD this time with a "Stop Code:" message of Inaccessible Boot Device.

After its done that it then goes to a BSOD type screen - Automatic repair, and there is an advanced options page, each option which I've tried, everything fails. 

Any help would be great. 

Many thanks

T

[Technogeezer]

More details please. Mac model, exact macOS version, and Fusion version.

You state you “reformatted the HD”. Can you elaborate on exactly what you did and why? I could interpret that as “you reformatted the Mac’s HD, reinstalled macOS, reinstalled Fusion, and restored the VM”?

If the Mac’s HD was rebuilt, did you restore the VM from a backup? Where was the VM backed up to and restored from? 

What state was the VM in when backed up? From what you have described, it appears that you either backed up a suspended VM or (shudder) a running VM. The background of the VM would have been black if the machine was shut down), not “the last excel page”.

Do you still have a copy of the VM from the point where you started this process?

[cantim]

Hi, Thanks very much fo looking at this.

The Mac is a MBP mid 2014 (11,3) , Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 16GB Memory, &  2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M.

It is running Big Sur on the latest Big Sur 11.7.2

Fusion is 12.2.5

"You state you “reformatted the HD”. Can you elaborate on exactly what you did and why? I could interpret that as “you reformatted the Mac’s HD, reinstalled macOS, reinstalled Fusion, and restored the VM”?"  

- Yes that's what I did. My Mac has the issue described here, https://realmacmods.com/product/macbook-pro-nocrash-utility/ I need to have this "no crash" app running from startup to keep the machine from crashing. After the last Mac OS update my Mac could not boot. It was also crashing in safe mode. Eventually I remembered my machine needed this no-crash process to be running and I was able to boot into safe mode for just long enough start it & make sure it was in the log-in items list and the machine started functioning as normal. However before I remembered about this app I had gone to the last resort and carried out a reformat of the drive (using disk utility) and reinstalled the OS, I did not use a Time Machine or anything else. All my data expect my downloads folder (where my VM was stored was in the cloud).

"If the Mac’s HD was rebuilt, did you restore the VM from a backup? Where was the VM backed up to and restored from?"

-Once the machine was back running I opened my Time Machine external drive, navigated to the the last backup and copied the folder where I had the VM back into the downloads folder. 

"What state was the VM in when backed up? From what you have described, it appears that you either backed up a suspended VM or (shudder) a running VM. The background of the VM would have been black if the machine was shut down), not “the last excel page. 

/ 

Do you still have a copy of the VM from the point where you started this process?"

I wouldn't have had the VM running, when I made the Mac update, I don't use it very often, Fusion says that is  suspended.  There are two VM's showing here, I am using this last working copy here to take copies from to try to get a good one running, the 2nd one here is showing the BSOD with the boot drive error message as in the pics in the first post.

 Thanks very much again. 

[a_p_]

It may be an issue with the VM's suspended state. In order to resume a VM from this state, the host OS should not have been modified.

What may help is to reset the VM. I don't use Fusion myself, so I'm not sure if the GUI offers an option to reset the VM. In case it doesn't you may delete .vmss file in the VM's .vmwarevm folder. Note that this is comparable to pulling the power plug on a physical system.

André

[cantim]

Thanks, I just tried that, no luck unfortunately. I've tried it on two copies, once where when opening the VM when asked where the VM came from I select the "I copied it" and the other "I moved it" each time it goes straight into the inaccessible boot drive BSOD. 

[Technogeezer]

Ouch.

A Time Machine backup of a VM isn’t exactly a good place to be starting from. Time Machine backups of VMs tend to be unreliable - that’s one of the reasons they’re not recommended. 

@a_p_ , to reset a suspended VM in Fusion through the GUI:

• highlight the VM in the Virtual Machine Library
• from the Fusion menu bar, click Virtual Machine. Resume will be able to be selected, but the other power options will be grayed out. 
• hold the option key, and the grayed out Shut Down will become Power Off.
• Select Power Off to reset the suspended VM.
  
  

When restoring a VM, when asked if I moved or copied the VM, I’d choose “I moved it” as that option retains items such as the VMs networking  MAC address  

Can you boot the VM into Recovery? Otherwise you may have to find a Windows 8 bootable ISO to access advanced repair options. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

If you need that utility, then there's some kind of hardware problem with your mac, which could be the root cause (not the utility, though it's the first i've heard of it, and I've helped manage mac populations north of 100K machines), but the alleged thing it's supposed to fix.

Have you taken it in to Apple for a full hardware diagnostic?