disk read failed over a Windows server 2000

[roges12344]

I´m just about to give up to the idea of having proxmox 7.2 up and running.
I've tried just about everything to migrate my Windows server 2000 VM already running on virtualbox to proxmox.
no matter which bracket i mount the SO hard drive in, i always get the same error
"Disk read failure" (even with standard IDE)
I´ve tried installing the LSI SCSi driver, PIIX3 IDE driver, PIIX4. Tried to get the virtio drivers but AFAIK they just don´t exist
Tried the MERGEIDE method too.
None has given the results i am looking for.
By chance do you have more ideas? i'm all ears!!
thanks a lot in advance
Regards.
- I´m very sad about this. proxmox seems to be a very strong option for VMs...

 

[apoc]

can you share the VM configuration you have used?
Windows 2000 is very old. I question it's use as of today due to security concerns but guess you have your reasons.
Virtio for Windows 2000 would be new for me. From my perspective: If it runs on Virtualbox, it should run on PVE as well

 

[roges12344]

Thanks a lot for the reply, The server is used seldomly as a historical ERP

agent: 0
boot: order=ide0
cores: 1
cpu: qemu32
ide0: local-lvm:vm-103-disk-0,size=152636M
ide2: local:iso/E1000Win2k.iso,media=cdrom,size=22106K
kvm: 1
machine: pc-i440fx-3.1
memory: 2048
meta: creation-qemu=6.2.0,ctime=1666365904
name: OLDERP
net0: rtl8139=08:00:27:59:F4:BA,bridge=vmbr0,firewall=1
numa: 0
ostype: w2k
smbios1: uuid=3668781a-5f5e-41d8-9a6e-f11f37dd693b
sockets: 2
vcpus: 2
vmgenid: 8269a1ae-5203-47f9-9c2b-22c83fa6be2b

 

[apoc]

I'd try to disable KVM and also reduce number of vCPUs to 1.
It is a long way back but I think multi-core CPUs didn't exist back in the days. So maybe the system stumbles at that point.

Have you tried installing Win 2000 from scratch? Does that work?
Try a minimal viable setup.

Aside that I'd chose the same configuration, sorry...

 

[roges12344]

First of all thank you for your answers.

Today i have a MAJOR breaktrough and i want your opinions about it
booted up the machine with hiren's boot cd 15.2 iso image
chose the first option "Boot from hard drive (Windows Vista/7/2008 or XP)"
Like magic it booted up...
Somehow It's like proxmox BIOS doesn't recognize the disk itself or can't directly access to it

Does anyone have this issue in older versions of proxmox? i am willing to install a whole new instance if is needed!!!

 

[apoc]

hm that sounds interesting. Hirens Boot CD basically provides a boot loader IIRC.

Something I have picked up on which I did not recognize on my last view. The size of the disk is "152636M" - is it the same size on Virtualbox?
Asking because I do recall that at some point OS had issues with disks larger 137 GB due to LBA addressing issues (28 bit).
That could lead to the point that the boot-loader can't be found. Linux did not have this issue.

 

[roges12344]

Thanks a lot Apoc:

Yes, the 160 gb is the size both the Virtualbox and physical setup

idk if this is a clue, but this is the output that appears right after i choose the boot option from hiren's

hopefully this might give a clue about what is going on.

Regards

 

[apoc]

I was curious enough to check if I can reproduce but neither have the needed Windows 2000 ISO nor a serial anymore.
So the only I can give you is that idea.

Try to install this VM on PVE with a smaller disk and attach the large disk later to access your data. Maybe virtual box does "some magic" - it works different for sure (as it is not the same).

 

[roges12344]

Thanks a lot Apoc.

Tried to keep the very same setup i had on virtualbox. Kept the 2 vcpus, also kept the 160 gb partition size (i am planning to shrink it in the future) everything works as expected so far.

I've decided to use the GRUB provided by the hiren's 15.2 ISO image since that way i don't modify the setup i need. (if i have the time i will try with a different grub).

I truly believe that the problem is between the piix3 and piix4 driver, i've read that piix4 is not supported on PVE, and i had the piix4 IDE conector back in VirtualBox.

Also another hint would be that PVE cant't directly read the NTLDR of the disk.

As atypical as it sounds, i have another windows 2000 server and a windows XP waiting to get the Physical to Virtual treatment, all of them use NTLDR... guess I'll post my comments about how they went in another thread.

Thanks a lot for your patience and your answers, which encouraged me to keep trying. Hopefully this post would help others to find a more proper solution than this one we found.