Guest Operating System Location

[NatsReldas]

I am running Windows7 with my Guest being Windows 2000.   Question:  When Windows 2000 as the guest boots up, where are can these boot up files be found? 

It is crashing about a 3rd of the way with BSOD, INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE.   I have a few months earlier version that I would like to copy some of the files from to this one but I don't know if I can do that and I don't know what files I need to copy.

[scott28tt]

That is a Windows error and is not generated by Workstation, so your question on boot files is a Microsoft question not a VMware one.

Have you made any changes to the VM settings since Windows last booted successfully?

What do you mean when you say you have a few months earlier version?

When you talk about copying files, what sort of files do you mean?

[NatsReldas]

I do daily backups of the data files on my 2000 system and I do a complete backup of the 2000 system every few weeks.  So when I say "earlier version" I mean the data files have changed but the operating system and bootable files have not changed.  What happened is that I had a home power failure while the 2000 system was open.  When I rebooted I got the error and cannot boot.   However, my earlier version would have the files necessary to boot.  So if I could just copy the files needed to boot then the 2000 that failed to boot should reboot.  But I have no idea where the bootable files reside.   Are they on the 2000 system or are they stored on the Windows 7 system somewhere?  I would think they are in the .nvram, vmsd, vmsn,vmss, vmx etc.  I guess if they are in the .vmdk files then I'm out of luck.   Same computer - 2000 guest system resides on a external hard drive.

[RDPetruska]

Unless you have your guest OS configured to have bootable files on a separate partition than the data, then they are ALL on the same system partition within the virtual hard disk.

[NatsReldas]

From what you said here, I guess I won't be able to copy any files from the previous workable system onto this one. 

Would it be possible to boot from my original 2000 CD and try to do a repair, although I've never had any luck doing repairs for other things is the past?

Is there anything at all I can try to get this system to boot?  Running chkdsk and virus did not help.  It fails even trying safe mode.   Shall I give up?

Stan

[RDPetruska]

You say you have an older backup.  You can first, copy the current vmdk files to another temporary location.  Then restore the older backup of the virtual machine, and verify it is bootable.  The only things missing should be any newer files.  You can then attach the copied current vmdk as a second hard disk to the VM, then when booted, you should see that as the 😧 drive (or another letter), and copy any data files, etc. from that one to the (older, but now current) disk.  After that, you can remove the second disk (and likely delete the files from your host after making sure you have everything off them); then just any software updates you did since the backup.

[wila]

Hi,

PMJI,

you said:

I do daily backups of the data files on my 2000 system and I do a complete backup of the 2000 system every few weeks.

The power failure has damaged your VM, at least the booting parts, but possibly more than that.

There is no guarantee that your data files are 100%.

Unless your daily backups are not frequent enough then this is the best time to start testing your backups.

You don't  need to throw away your broken VM, but from what you said the most logical plan of action would be to get that complete system backup from a few weeks ago, register the VM and then restore the daily backup onto that.

--

Wil