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Trouble restoring XP backup to Virtual Machine

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I've successfully restored several TI2016 'Disk and Partition' backups of Windows 7 to Oracle VirtualBox, though it seems like there is some different issue each time I dot that. Now, I'm trying to do the same with an XP system. I've specified 32bit XP on the VM, successfully restored with the Recovery DVD, then tried to boot. I just get a completely black screen. If I shut down the VM and restart I get the B&W "Windows did not start successfully" screen, with the "Start Windows Normally" option highlighted. That at least tells me that it tried to start Windows. While the counter is counting down from 29, and I hit the <enter> button, the counter stops and nothing happens. If I let the counter go to 0, same thing, nothing.

I then booted the 32bit Universal Restore disk, ran through the prompts (ignoring the "missing" \VEN_106B&DEV_003F... PCI driver, which ignore worked fine on the last Windows 7 system I restored to VM). Results the same, comes up with "Windows did not start successfully", counts down to zero then nothing. If I select start in Safe Mode it scrolls through loading a bunch of drivers then just stops.

Any ideas?

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XP drivers are terrible.  Can't say for sure, but compatiblity across different systems is horrible.  I suspect that maybe your XP system was originally IDE as the SATA mode and maybe your VM is setup as SATA or SAS which could be the issue.  

I couldn't find that speciifc driver, but it could be the chipset, a usb controller or maybe even bluetooth.  This is the only thing I found as a hit - not much help though:  https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1308

Does it always stop on a certain driver? Maybe research that.  

You can try booting some other WinPE and then running bluescreenview (it's a portable app), it might list more information.  YOu'd launch WinPE and launch bluescreenview.exe.  Then you'd go to options >>> advanced options and point it to the VM drives minidump file which is typically stored at C:\Windows\MiniDump, but might have a different letter than C: in WinPE.  X: will be the WinPE OS.

Also, did you make sure to setup the VM as a legacy install and did you boot the Acronis recovery in legacy mode for the restore too?  The way the Acronis rescue media is booted for the restore is very important. 

I figured it out (again). I forgot the procedure I used to restore an Acronis WIN7 backup and, although I wrote it down, I didn't scroll down far enough in my notes. Sheesh! The basic answer is here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows, which involves some registry changes. In that link is a link to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/314082 for XP (and you have to scroll down to issue 314082 and click there). The XP registry changes are shown in this final link. In addition, the drivers listed at the bottom of that registry edit section (Atapi.sys, intelide.sys, Pciide.sys and Pciidex.sys) must be in the \WINDOWS\system32\drivers folders. I didn't check this the first time and the restore didn't work (although I had other problems, so maybe my missing just the intelide.sys driver wasn't the cause).

Also, very important, VM > Settings > System > Enable I/O APIC must be checked! This can be done after the Acronis restore. This thread: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=82815&p=391496&hilit=… discusses that.

After doing the above, XP booted just fine! I hope this helps someone else.

Nice work and thanks for providing links.

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

Tis helped me

Also, very important, VM > Settings > System > Enable I/O APIC must be checked! This can be done after the Acronis restore.

Lots of Thanks!