You missed the part in his instructions that said "with the VM stopped".

That's why those things were grayed out... the VM was still running, you can't change the hardware settings with the VM running. You didn't need to reinstall VirtualBox, you just needed to stop the virtual machine. It's the virtual equivalent of turning off the computer before you crack open the case to add new hardware.

From the screen shot, it looks like you've correctly configured the CD drive, and the boot order seems correct.

Assuming that you didn't miss the "press any key to boot from CD/DVD" message on the virtual machine (DOUBLE CHECK THAT), then it's my guess that this is your actual problem now (from my earlier post):

Also, one other thing you should check before you go further: Looking closer at your system configuration of the Virtual machine, it seems like it's got two CD-ROM drives configured. Don't know how that happened. Just in case that's the problem, make sure it's just one CD-ROM drive in the device configuration, and then see if it'll boot from the disk.

If not, then double check that the pirated CD is bootable or not. The way to tell if that, is to try to boot your real computer from it. Obviously don't follow through with the installation, just go far enough to see if the real computer successfully boots off of that CD, then turn the computer off before going through with the installation.

Assuming that the problem is indeed a non-bootable CD, then, one thing you might be able to do, is create a bootable Windows 7 installer ISO file, and then simply tell VirtualBox to use that ISO file instead of using the real CD drive. For example this way is one possible way:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/make-bootable-usb-cd-dvd-install-windows-using-iso-file/

I've never tried the method outlined there, but from the looks of it, one advantage to it is that it gets you an actual Microsoft installation ISO, rather than just some pirated disc. This assumes that your Windows 7 product key (possibly found on that pirated disc) is valid somehow. :-)

I changed the BIOS to boot first from CD drive, then from hard drive. It still boots up in Windows 8.1, so I suspect that you are correct, the DVD is not bootable. I'll go have a chat with my software pirate next Wednesday when the street market opens again.



Apparently not, in my case...

NOTE: If you want to create bootable CDs of Windows, you will only be able to do that with Windows Vista or XP.


If I understand correctly (probably I don't!) if I can get my computer to boot in the Virtual Machine, I can then put the Windows 7 installation disk in the DVD player and run the setup.exe to install the OS. Or does the Virtual Machine have to have an OS already installed to boot into?

tanstaafl.

No. How would you get the first OS in there?

The VM will boot from a physical CD/DVD in the host's drive (which is what we've been trying to do), or it can boot from a virtual CD/DVD image (an ISO file).

I'm just not smart enough to figure out how to do this.

OK, here's what I've got:

1) A Virtual Machine set up by VirtualBox, dynamic storage, 1024K memory allocated.

2) A host CD/DVD defined.

3) A Windows 7 installation disk, apparently not bootable. [Even though I have configured my BIOS to boot first from the CD/DVD, it still boots into Windows 8.1 from the hard drive. VirtualBox says that the Windows 7 installation disk contains no bootable medium.]

With just those things to work with (plus, of course, my regular Windows 8.1 OS) what do I do to get Windows 7 installed in the Virtual Machine, preferably described step by step in words of one syllable or less? In other words, how do I make my Windows 7 installation disk bootable so that VirtualBox will be happy with it?

I'm sorry I'm such a dummy about this, but this stuff seems to be beyond my pay grade.

tanstaafl.

I would probably try and get another Windows 7 disk. Up until recently you could just download the .isos straight from Microsoft (effectively). You still needed a key and to activate it though.

BUT before you go down that path....

You mention changing the BIOS and it still boots Windows 8.1? So that's the main PC's BIOS? The Virtual machine has its own separate BIOS access that runs after powering on the VM. The VM really is a complete PC inside a program so has all the bits a non-virtual machine has - just most are done in software. Completely separate to the main BIOS.

Virtual Box has the boot order set in Settings->System->Motherboard. Move the CD/DVD-ROM to the top. Leave it and the hard disk checked. It should be that way already though.

Like this:
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/40841-virtualbox-how-to-change-the-boot-order-of-a-guest-os

Also I would remove the extra CD/DVD-ROM you have installed to prevent confusion. Not the G one.

This should be done with VM not running (off)

You shouldn't be rebooting the whole machine each time. Just reboot the VM. Your screen shot indicates you've got as far as booting the machine but you talk about booting 8.1 which doesn't make sense. If you just mean to try out the disc, some Windows 8 machines won't boot from the CD very easily I think due to some Windows 8 secure boot stuff (UEFI).

If still no go, I'd be looking at a new install disc or downloading a genuine ISO. Can you download ~3GB?

Ah I missed the boot order in the screenshot. You have that right then. New disk or ISO if you ask me.

I would never endorse such a thing, but you can download .iso images of equally questionable provenance on bittorrent. For backup purposes only, of course. If the VM doesn't need to be connected to the internet, you might consider Windows XP w/ SP3. Should consume significantly fewer resources and run much more responsively.

Well... First I spent 100 pesos (=$6.67 USD at current exchange rate) to buy a pirated copy of Windows 7. Yeah, I know I shouldn't do that... but in all likelihood I will only use it one time, to load my architectural CAD program and generate some pictures. Then the virtual machine will be deleted along with the pirated OS.

Next I installed the VirtualBox software so I could create a virtual machine.

Next I found that my pirated OS was an installation disk only, and was not bootable. This caused considerable angst on my part.

Next I got a lot of help from people on this bbs, to point me in the right direction.

Next, a bit of irony: I spent $30 on software (the latest "Nero Burning ROM") so I could make my $6.67 OS bootable. I think there is shareware out there that would do the same thing, but I have had good luck with Nero in the past and am comfortable with their UI concepts.

Next I found out how complicated it was to actually create the bootable DVD, since the Install.wim file was 3.46 GB, and the maximum size for a single file allowable on a boot DVD is 2.0 GB. (The workaround required some sleight of hand during the OS installation, swapping the two disks back and forth each time the system rebooted.)

Next I had to dig into the "Help" files for VirtualBox to find out how to change the default Host key so I could release the mouse. The default is the right CTRL key. My keyboard is more than 20 years old, and it doesn't have a right CTRL!

Next I found out that for whatever reason, dynamic space allocation didn't work, probably because of the missing Install.wim file on the bootable disk. The install crashed due to lack of disk space, so I deleted the Virtual Machine, and created a new one with fixed storage (25 GB) and began the installation again.

And... this time it worked! See the attached picture. It is an actual photograph of my computer screen because VirtualBox doesn't do screen shots.

I haven't tried my software yet, that will have to wait until Wednesday before I have time to do it. But hopefully...

tanstaafl.

Congrats! Wow, sounds like quite a journey, but I'm glad it worked for you.

Question out of curiosity: within Virtualbox, would you be able to send a Print Screen command to capture the screenshot?

On a Mac, you simply go to the menu Machine->take screenshot or Cmd+E

To screen shot a virtual machine, make the VirtualBox window active but don't click in the actual VM. Alt-Print Screen should do it then. You'll get the Virtual box window then.

If you click inside the VM and then Print Screen it will copy it to the clipboard inside the VM. VMware has good clipboard sharing, but I'm not sure VirtualBox does.

All Windows 7 disks should be bootable. Your method was round about but glad it worked.