Interrupt guest OS boot sequence and networking issue

[preban]

Hi everyone,

I searched the archives for an answer to my question but I didnt find it, so apologies if this has been posted before.

I have a Vista 64bit host and an XP guest os. The image files were made by someone else on a different pc and I am trying to restore them to access info on the vm. My problem is that no one in our organization has the password to the vm. Is it possible to halt the vm boot process to get the vm to "boot" to a utility disc so i can change the admin password? Also, the vm isnt accessing the network, the adapters 1 and 8 are present but not connecting. I have not made any changes to vmware workstation it's using the defaults. It's possible that if I can get the vm to communicate with active directory I'll be able to log in with my account. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[jbruelasdgo]

you can reset the vm password, you just need to enter the VM Bios and change the boot order so that the CD is the first option, save your changes and boot with your utility CD

there are plenty of utilities out there to reset the windows password

if the VM is already in Active Directory, yes, you could logon with your credentials

regards

Jose Ruelas

[preban]

Thanks Jose,

I guess I was looking for the procedure to do that. I'm new to vmware and workstation and I've been fumbling with the controls. I've downloaded the manual for 6.5 and will look through that.

[wdewey]

Press ESC when the BIOS screen is up. This will allow you to select what to boot from. Then just treat it like a standard physical PC.

Bill

Message was edited by: wdewey for clarity.

[preban]

OK,new problem. The vm image is a windows xp pro image from a laptop that i do not have. I tried to boot to the vm BIOS from workstation and the screen is blank (black). I have to kill vmware workstation from the host OS in order to shut everything down. Is there anything I can do to get the image to boot correctly? If i boot to windows i get to a ctrl-alt-del prompt but thats it.

[preban]

OK I got the vm to boot to a utility disc. However the utility disc doesnt see an operating system to attach to. What am I doing wrong?

[wdewey]

You may need to load drivers for the Hard drive if it was originally set up as a SCSI drive. The hard drive type should show up in the propertys of the VM.

Bill

[preban]

Yeah I think thats it. The vm properties show its hdd as a scsi. How should i install the drivers? Boot to a win xp disc? I'm confused.

[wdewey]

No. You will need to install the drivers on the tech disk or use a tech disk that detect and automatically install drivers. Most of the Linux live CD's will detect scsi HD's and automatically be able to access the HD. Getting the drivers on your tech disk is really outside the scope of this forum and would be better asked in a forum for that specific product.

Bill

[preban]

OK I got this fixed. I had to load vmware's scsi drivers from a floppy image when I booted from the utility disc. I rebooted the vm, and booted from disc once again. Once there the utility was able to see the OS and I had access to the image. Thanks for all your help guys.