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How do I fix a corrupt VMware Fusion Vista virtual machine?Bad news. Every time I try to reboot my Microsoft Vista virtual machine in VMWare Fusion on my Mac, it says tht something's corrupted and it can't proceed. What the heck can I do about it? After seeing your question, I was hoping I'd never see similar errors myself, but the bad news is that I've seen similar problems from both VMWare Fusion and Parallels. In both virtual machine apps on the Mac sometimes, well, things happen. With some irony, I find myself in the same darn situation with my Macbook Air. What makes the Air a bit more problematic is that it doesn't have a CDROM/DVD drive built into the unit, but rather has an external drive that hooks up via the USB port. It might not make a difference, but somehow I never quite got things working. Let me show you the situation I encountered and what I tried to get it to work... First off, the error screen:  Logically, I should be able to install the Microsoft Windows Vista install DVD, reboot, and have everything repair itself, right? My first try is to simply plug in the CDROM/DVD drive and restart. The latter, by the way, you accomplish in VMWare Fusion by choosing "Restart Guest":  That didn't accomplish anything, however, so I checked the settings and found that I hadn't connected the CD/DVD drive. That was easily remedied with Virtual Machine --> CD/DVD --> Connect CD/DVD:  But.... that didn't work either. One last try. I used "CD/DVD Settings..." on the same menu and tweaked the settings to automatically connect the drive:  No joy. There's no way I can see to actually have the Vista virtual machine see the CD/DVD drive at boot time, so I'm afraid my recommendation is to just delete the virtual machine and reinstall from scratch. That, by the way, is done by simply going into your "Documents" folder and looking for a folder called "Virtual Machines.localized". That's where VMWare stores its virtual machines. Delete the matching operating system. My Vista install is "Windows Vista.vmwarevm". Hopefully someone from the VMware team will add a comment explaining another way we could have side-stepped this problem and repaired our Vista installation. Disclaimer: The link to VMWare Fusion is an affiliate link. Your cost for the product is identical but they pay me a commission that helps us keep the lights on. Thanks!
Categorized:
Mac OS X Help
(Article 8085,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: mac os x, parallels, virtual machines, vmware fusion Previous: How do I schedule a blog post in the future? Next: How do I sell Led Zeppelin Tickets to their cancelled concert? Subscribe!
I don't have VMWare, so this may be totally off the mark, but is relevant to "real" Windows boxes. The problem may be the fact that the DVD drive is connected via USB. Does the VMWare image boot from a BIOS or BIOS-like image? Does that boot image include the ability to boot from a USB device? Is that feature enabled? Finally, some "real" PC BIOSes allow you to press a key, such as F12, to bring up a "boot from this device" menu. Is that available under VMWare? Posted by: Ken B at May 29, 2008 3:30 PMBefore you delete the VM and start again (which can be a lot of work if you have to install a bunch of software) you might have a look at the VM logs and try deleting the NVRAM. If you control or right click on the VM file you can select Show Package Contents and open it. Inside you will find some log files - reading these might give you a clue to the problem. If the machine was suspended and you are having a problem coming back from the suspend the file that ends in ',ss' can be deleted and the VM will reboot. You can also remove the virtual NVRAM, stored in the file ending .nvram, and that will get some VMs to reboot. # Tony Posted by: Tony Williams at May 31, 2008 11:16 PMThanks for that tip, Tony! Posted by: Ted Atkins at September 17, 2008 11:28 AMWhile booting into the operating system, hit ESC and it will bring up the boot menu. Use the arrow keys to go to the CD/DVD option. With your OS disc in your drive, hit enter. Now you can repair the OS with your install disc. Posted by: John at January 6, 2009 1:38 PMJohn, your comments are a LIFESAVER. Simply hit ESC and it brought up the boot menu. Thanks so much for that information. Posted by: Michael at September 8, 2009 7:45 PMYou can restart the machine from the fusion menu and while it is 'booting' press the F1 key to bring up the virtual PC's boot device menu. You will need to be quick as it moves fast. From there you can select the CD/DVD drive and follow the prompt to get to the install / repair screens as you need them. Posted by: Matthew at November 13, 2009 9:46 PMIf you find that the post screen happens too quick for you to hit the Esc key and choose your boot device, you can add a delay to the boot by editing the VM's .vmx file. I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...
I do have a comment, now that you mention it!
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