[SOLVED] Bluescreen at startup after virtualization ?

[Emilie_R]

Hello,

(sorry for my english, this is a 95% google trad😩)

I work in a small company and we have a server that is essential for our activity. This was set up about ten years ago by an enthusiast who is no longer present today. It is essential for our daily activity but its equipment is beginning to show signs of fatigue and in the event of a serious breakdown, it will be impossible to replace it. It would be impossible to rebuild (software) the server from scratch, there is no documentation left on how the software and the scripts running on it work so I thought about virtualizing it, so we wouldn't be dependent on physical media anymore. It is true that the question of security may arise as to the fact of keeping an outdated OS, but the server operates in a small dedicated LAN which greatly limits the problem.

The current technical characteristics are as follows:

• i5-3610ME - 3.3 GHz (2 cores)
• 8GB DDR3 1333MHz
• 512 GB HDD
• NVIDIA Quadro NVS 315 graphics card.

So I used a bootable USB key and Northon Ghost (12.0.0.6277) to make an image of the server's hard drive, I installed VMWare on a PC running Windows 10 pro (i7 10 875H, 16 GB RAM, 1TB NVME SSD ).

I created a virtual machine (8 GB RAM, 1 2-core proc, 512 GB HDD, 1 network card, USB 2.0), booted to a WinPE ISO, ran Northon Ghost, applied the image to the virtual disk and the exact copy of the hard disk have been made.
Shutting down the virtual machine, removing the ISO and booting. The Windows logo appears, 3-4s, and... blue screen of the VM:

The results I could find on the internet speak of a boot problem, but the Windows logo appears so I don't think that's the case with my problem. If there was a boot problem, I would get an error message like "no OS found" or something like that and the Windows logo would not appear. Especially since after a blue screen, I have the choice of the boot mode I want (safe mode, etc.).
I don't know if that changes anything, but the server was running Windows 7 Embedded. I guess whoever built it wanted to do things clean but I don't master this variant of the OS at all... I'm just a passionate, my experience in this kind of case is very limited.

I tried a lot of things, including:

• creation of 2 other VMs so that the hard disk is connected as IDE or SATA (instead of SCI by default)
• installation of a classic Windows 7 in another VM, update of the latter and installation of the VM tools then copy of the contents of its folder c:\Windows\System32\drivers to the same folder of the virtualized server (via bootable ISO )
• ditto with an ISO of Windows 7 Embedded freshly downloaded and installed.
• activation of the debug mode of the virtualized server, no error in the loading list, the blue screen occurs afterwards (3-4s after the logo appears)
• modification of the registery (from an ISO Hirens) to switch some services to start at 0.

Nothing worked and I don't see what approach could solve the problem...

Do you have a solution or an idea to test?

Thank you very much !

 

[ZV505867]

1. Make sure that you have configured the settings in the VMWare BIOS so that it can support booting Windows 7.
2. If it's booting off of an SSD, make sure that the proper NVMe drivers are installed
3. Make sure that you disable RAID in the BIOS. I'm pretty sure that Windows 7 does not exactly support RAID out-of-the-box.
4. If the system is in UEFI mode, try using legacy boot mode. You'll need to enable CSM and disable Secure Boot and a few other features to do this. Windows 7 generally works better in legacy mode. If that's not possible, try UEFI boot with CSM - it's better than pure UEFI boot.
5. If the image is an image file supported by VMWare as a HDD attachment, try to directly attach the virtual image to the VMWare, as opposed to using software to extract the image.

 

[ZV505867]

Be careful - Windows 7 is not natively supported on Comet Lake. You'll likely miss important updates for that VM, and it can get hard to get things running properly, because the storage controllers are different with Comet Lake. If possible, try to use a CPU from anywhere between Sandy Bridge to Skylake.

 

[Emilie_R]

Thanks for your answer ! Unfortunately :


1 - Except for "Installed O/S" --> Win95 / [Other], I don't see anything in the VMWare BIOS. And this is the VM settings :

2 - The hard disk is defined as SATA, not NVME :

3 - RAID is not enabled, the physical server is just a single HDD

4 - Both the original system and the VM are BIOS, not UEFI

5 - The image cannot be used directly, it mush be applied to a (virtual) disk.

 

[Emilie_R]

Be careful - Windows 7 is not natively supported on Comet Lake. You'll likely miss important updates for that VM, and it can get hard to get things running properly, because the storage controllers are different with Comet Lake. If possible, try to use a CPU from anywhere between Sandy Bridge to Skylake.

I installed an other VM from a Windows 7 ISO with no problem, and even tried to copy the drivers (C:\Windows\system32\Drivers) to the same folder in the copied server but without solving the blue screen.

Do you want to say that I should add a driver in my virtualized server with an other way ?

 

[USAFRet]

For a VMWare guest, is Norton Ghost a viable method of making an Image?

What specific instructions does VMWare give for virtualizing a currently installed system?

 

[ZV505867]

If the image that you created is in a format that is universally accepted or is open source, try using another imaging program.

If it's possible, try archiving the scripts and deploying them on Windows 10

Try safe mode. Try all 3 of the safe modes. Like what the BSOD says, run a disk check. To do that, boot into your Windows PE, and select your language and hit next. Then, hit SHIFT and F10 together, to bring up the command prompt. Run the command that was mentioned in the BSOD (chkdsk /f) and let it sit and hope that it fixes drive corruption. Because this system is in BIOS / legacy, the Windows Boot Manager may be corrupted, as opposed to the MBR.

 

[Emilie_R]

For a VMWare guest, is Norton Ghost a viable method of making an Image?

What specific instructions does VMWare give for virtualizing a currently installed system?

I think it is, I did it before without problem but not with an old system.

Converting a physical machine for Fusion, Workstation, or Player using Converter Standalone (2005129) is the best answer I can find but Converter Standalone is not aviable from VMWare download center...

If the image that you created is in a format that is universally accepted or is open source, try using another imaging program.

If it's possible, try archiving the scripts and deploying them on Windows 10

Try safe mode. Try all 3 of the safe modes. Like what the BSOD says, run a disk check. To do that, boot into your Windows PE, and select your language and hit next. Then, hit SHIFT and F10 together, to bring up the command prompt. Run the command that was mentioned in the BSOD (chkdsk /f) and let it sit and hope that it fixes drive corruption. Because this system is in BIOS / legacy, the Windows Boot Manager may be corrupted, as opposed to the MBR.

I will try with AOMEI and come back ^^

It would be impossible to rebuild (software) the server from scratch, my only option is to keep the current system.

Do you think it's a boot problem when the Windows logo appears ?

 

[Emilie_R]

Chkdsk result : "Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems. No further action is required.".

Edit : this is the video

View: https://vimeo.com/722842618

 

[ZV505867]

Try Last Known Good Configuration. I doubt if that will work, but it may.
This is definitely a problem with Windows or the image, as opposed to the system.
Did AOMEI partitioner work well, or no?

Try this as well:
Create another storage attachment for the VM. Install Windows 7 there. Then, set that new attachment as the first boot source, to override the previous HDD attachment. If Windows installs correctly, all of your other stuff may function. However, if that enthusiast tinkered around with the registry or that particular installation, then it may not work.

 

[johnbl]

Bug Check 0x7B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

error code was 0xc0000034=object name not found

 

[Emilie_R]

Thank you for your help 😀

Try Last Known Good Configuration. I doubt if that will work, but it may.
This is definitely a problem with Windows or the image, as opposed to the system.
Did AOMEI partitioner work well, or no?

Try this as well:
Create another storage attachment for the VM. Install Windows 7 there. Then, set that new attachment as the first boot source, to override the previous HDD attachment. If Windows installs correctly, all of your other stuff may function. However, if that enthusiast tinkered around with the registry or that particular installation, then it may not work.

The Last Known Good Configuration is not working too, your doubt was justified ^^

I used AOMEI but there is no difference 🙁

I installed a new Windows 7 in a 2nd disk as you said. I can access all files from the server but it doesn't work properly. I think I need to run the softwares from the original OS.

 

[kerberos_20]

Bug Check 0x7B: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE

error code was 0xc0000034=object name not found

lets say your image should work
getting this BSOD on something like windows 7,well...windows does not have installed drivers for your storage controller
this bsod is common when you replacing mainboard or when you switch in bios between IDE/AHCI

you can probably fix this with hiren boot cd which can edit registry

 

[Emilie_R]

Okay, there is a way to add the driver manually ?

I tried this :

Go to regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
Find the following folders: aliide, amdide, atapi, cmdide, iastor (may not exists), iastorV, intelide, LSI_SAS, msahci, pciide and viaide
Set all their "start" value to 0 in order to enable all theses drivers at boot
Save your changes

But no success.

 

[kerberos_20]

Okay, there is a way to add the driver manually ?

I tried this :

Go to regedit and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services
Find the following folders: aliide, amdide, atapi, cmdide, iastor (may not exists), iastorV, intelide, LSI_SAS, msahci, pciide and viaide
Set all their "start" value to 0 in order to enable all theses drivers at boot
Save your changes

But no success.

yes that registry should be solved by now

on your VM switch from SATA to IDE

 

[Emilie_R]

on your VM switch from SATA to IDE

It works !
You are my savior !

I tried this manipulation earlier but I think I shouldn't have switched to IDE.

Is there anything to do now to finalize the integration in VMWare?

Previously disabled services need to be re-enabled?

 

[kerberos_20]

It works !
You are my savior !

I tried this manipulation earlier but I think I shouldn't have switched to IDE.

Is there anything to do now to finalize the integration in VMWare?

Previously disabled services need to be re-enabled?

which services?

 

[Emilie_R]

which services?

aliide, amdide, atapi, cmdide, iastor (may not exists), iastorV, intelide, LSI_SAS, msahci, pciide and viaide

 

[ZV505867]

To prevent future problems, try configuring everything on that VM to the exact same configurations of that physical server.

 

[Emilie_R]

Noted, thank you for your help