Prev: installing vista on xp
Next: **Windows 7 won't install on VPC
From: Bo Berglund on 12 Dec 2008 01:25
On Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:54:56 -0600, jim evans
<jimsTAKEOUTnews2(a)houston.rr.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 02:28:03 -0000, "Mark Rae [MVP]"
><mark(a)markNOSPAMrae.net> wrote:
>
>>Is the virtual machine actually running at the moment or not...?
>>
>>If not, select it in the VPC console, click the Settings button and make
>>sure that it can still "see" its virtual disk(s)... Might they have been
>>moved and/or deleted...?
>
>It's in what I think is called a saved state. It's the state where
>you leave it without without turning it off but it's condition is
>stored.
>
>Here is the error message I get when I try to view Settings
>http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/2221/0089ia0.png

That is not an *error* message, it is *information* that when the
machine is in the saved state you cannot modify some of the machine
settings like adding/removing hardware to it etc.

>I can view the Options under the File menu.
Those are general VPC2007 options pertaining to the program as such
and *not* to a particular guest. You need to use the settings
available on the right hand buttons after selecting the guest.


You have been asked to check the virtual hard disks from within the
settings pane of the virtual machine but so far I have not seen any
response to this. (Except for a dump of the disk dir command.)

So Please open the settings pane for the virtual machine, then select
"Hard Disk 1" and look at the path to the virtual hard disk file in
the right hand side.
Now verify that the vhd file is actually available in this location by
browsing there using Windows Explorer.
This file holds the disk information that the guest runs on.

Next check if you have enabled the undo disk feature (below the Hard
disk settings in the left pane). If you have *not* then the vhd
file(s) holds all your disk data safely. If you have then your latest
disk operations are stored in the *.vud file.

Because you are in a "saved state" there is also a another file
present in parallel to the vhd file named *.vsv. This holds the
virtual machine's currently saved state.

Now you have information for a few options:

1) If you want to safeguard yourself you can make a copy of the *.vhd,
*.vsv, *.vud and *.vmc files as a backup. Recommended.

2) Next, in order to retrieve the data on the virtual disks you can
download and install WinImage (www.winimage.com) and use this programn
to open the *.vhd file. You will now be able to extract the vital data
from the virtual disk file to your regular host disk, thus saving the
data.

3) Next you can delete the *.vsv file, which is the same as removing
power from the virtual machine. You will lose all the data from
running applications that you had not saved before shutting down the
guest.
Now you can probably start the virtual machine again (the saved state
file may have been made incompatible for example if you updated
VPC2007 after shutting down the guest).

4) Finally, you can create a new virtual machine in the console and
when asked for the virtual disk you navigate to the vhd file you
copied in step 1 above. This will give you a new fresh machine that
when started brings you back into the guest you have trouble with, but
again without the saved state. All data already saved to disk will be
available, though.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)
From: Robert Comer on 12 Dec 2008 10:09
That sounds like your problem, the vhd file has been corrupted. Do
you have a backup and have you tried it?

Corrupted VHD's can be caused by a lot of things, but hardware is the
first thing I'd check. AV software has also been known to mess up
VHD's, or backup software if backed up when the VM is live.

--
Bob Comer



On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:41:27 -0600, jim evans
<jimsTAKEOUTnews2(a)houston.rr.com> wrote:

>When I try to create a new VM using the existing vhd file it reports
>"The file is not a valid virtual disk."
From: Robert Comer on 12 Dec 2008 12:10
Not necessarily (and probably not at all) a VPC problem though...

As on any critical data, I do lots of backups...

--
Bob Comer



On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:54:45 -0600, jim evans
<jimsTAKEOUTnews2(a)houston.rr.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:09:53 -0500, Robert Comer
><bobcomer-removeme-(a)mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>>Corrupted VHD's can be caused by a lot of things . . .
>
>Not a big confidence builder.
>
>jim
From: Steve Jain [MVP] on 12 Dec 2008 13:10
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:53:20 -0600, jim evans
<jimsTAKEOUTnews2(a)houston.rr.com> wrote:

>>Second, are you sure that the VM is not running on a different user
>>account?
>
>Yes.
>
>>What happens if you do a DIR of the folder now? Are the dates updated
>>to the current time again?
>
>The date/time on the .vsv and .vmc files are alike and about 4 hours
>ago when I did something requested by another post in this thread.
>
>The .vhd and .v01 files are like they are in the DIR I posted earlier
>-- Nov 5th at 12:48 PM, which was probably the last time I used the
>VM.
>
>>What happens when you click Ok on the error message?
>
>It returns to the Console. I notice it flashes up a command window
>(once call a DOS window) for a fraction of a second when I click the
>Start button to try to start the VM.
>
>>Have you tried rebooting the PC and then launching the the VM?
>
>If by "launching" you mean clicking Start on the Console -- yes,
>several times.

No, I mean restart your physical computer. There could be something
locking the files and not allowing VPC to access them

>
>>Finally, VPC isn't a flaky app . . .
>
>Couldn't prove it by me. This is a reasonably new XP installation
>(about 5 months old) and a fresh Visual PC installation with a single
>VM set up and working a few weeks ago.

And I've used it since 2001 and never had this problem, so...

>
>I can't think of another application I have that fails and certainly
>not one that fails and can't be recovered from a backup. I'm not sure
>I can remember ever having an application that could not be recovered
>at all.

If you have a backup of your VHDs, you shouldn't lose any data then.
It could be an issue with your saved state, you can delete your .vsv
file and try that. The .vsv file is the information in the saved
state...this will act as a hard reset to the VM and VM's OS.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/
From: Steve Jain [MVP] on 12 Dec 2008 15:49
On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:34:44 -0600, jim evans
<jimsTAKEOUTnews2(a)houston.rr.com> wrote:

>On Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:10:38 -0500, Robert Comer
><bobcomer-removeme-(a)mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>>Not necessarily (and probably not at all) a VPC problem though...
>>
>>As on any critical data, I do lots of backups...
>
>Me too. I had two backups. But I don't keep them forever and
>apparently this quit working so long ago both had been written over.
>
>jim

We can try one more thing, create a new VM using the New PC Wizard and
point it to the existing .VHD file and see if that makes any
difference.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/
First  |  Prev  |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3
Prev: installing vista on xp
Next: **Windows 7 won't install on VPC