Hi,
My experience ?
Note : I am very interested by the high VBoot’ features (snapshot, restore, immutable, …) and I try to test TRIAL V2 with this configuration :

Machine : AMD Athlon 64 3800 2,4Ghz, Phoenix bios, 4Go Ram
- W7 Ultimate on hard disk system ([hd0,1]) : only 1 OS installed
- VBoot Loader installed directly on external disk usb drive (as instructions 2.2 Installing VBoot Loader directly to a hard disk or external USB drive) : OK
- Windows7 installed to VHD 20Go fixed diskfile (as instructions 7. Install Windows 7, to a virtual disk file using a simple command line), VHD diskfile => on disk system (hd0,1) : OK
- Configure grub.cfg for starting W7 VHD diskfile (with using LABEL format) : OK

When I boot from USB disk, all seems to be right : VBoot menu options and W7 start correctly, BUT I have noted these two points which are quiet annoying because :
1 - from Vboot, I have always the same error that in this thread ‘Error : bios disk error’ which comes two times
2 - Also, there is 3, 4 minutes for this error, before W7 starting ??

My bios is configured with floppy hardware option disabled (no floppy drive) and I try to load many times with option disabled (bitartrate workaround) and option enabled, but this error always appears.

Any idea for these points ?
Note : When I start W7 VHD directly from W7 bootmgr (BCD configured for this entry), I don’t note any incidence from the start of W7 (~ 1 minute)

Thanks in advance.
Christian

4min for windows 7 boot is way too slow. In our tests, it should be same as original windows vhd.

When you started w7 vhd from W7 bootmgr, did you use vboot drivers? The same vboot vhd for windows 7 can also be started from bootmgr. If this is much quicker, that means our boot loader has bugs. You can verify which driver is using by running diskmgmt.msc, and check disk 1's properties to determine whether it's vboot or MSFT VHD driver.

vboot v2 has very good performance, so 4 mins is not acceptable.

those two biodisk read errors are ok, not to do with this slow boot.

I would be interested to know what motherboard you have. I bet your bios handles your external usb drive more like a hardware floppy drive. If that makes sense. Or to put it another way, your bios is cousing the same error message as my bios caused on hardware floppy drive. Have you tried booting into vboot off of your internal hard drive instead?

I believe the bios disk errors are responsible for the slow boot. The bios times out until it's timer is satisfied in then resumes on that error.

Hi,

PS : excuse for my approximative english please
Thank you for your replies.

Machine/ Configuration :
NEC PC Tower, WA 1310 motherboard, ATHLON 64 3800+, 4Go RAM
Bios Phoenix (No Floppy hardware -> floppy hardware option disabled)
500 Go SATA disk (Disk System, 3 partitions) : Windows 7 ultimate (C:), W7 VHD diskfile (20Go) on C:\
500 Go external USB2 disk : VBoot installed (only)

---------------------------
The results :

1 - Boot W7 from W7 bootmgr (on Disk System)
From Shutdown <= T0
To Starting Windows 7 <= T < 30 sec

2 - Boot W7 VHD from W7 bootmgr (on Disk System) :
From Shutdown <= T0
To Starting Windows 7 <= T < 30 sec

Check W7 VHD disk properties : Disk VMLite VBootMP SCSI Disk Device
Details drivers : disk.sys, partmgr.sys - Microsoft driver v6.1.7600 21/06/2006

3 - Boot W7 VHD from VBoot (on external USB2 Disk) :
From VBoot menu <= T0
To 1st bios disk error <= T = ~ 50 sec
To 2d bios disk error <= T = ~ 1 min 35 sec
To Starting Windows 7 <= T = ~ 2 min 50 sec to > 3 min (vary to 3 min 10 sec ?)

Check W7 VHD disk properties : Disk VMLite VBootMP SCSI Disk Device
Details drivers : disk.sys, partmgr.sys - Microsoft driver v6.1.7600 21/06/2006

these, after several tests …
---------------------------
For the time, I’ve not installed VBoot on disk system.
I’ve no experiences from VBoot : it seems the two biodisk read errors can be ignored
but it seems those errors introduce boot time in this case (?)

Thanks in advance
Christian

The next bits of information I would be curious to know would be:
a. what are your system bios settings for USB storage
b. a printout of your grub.cfg

Have you tried such things as trying to access only a floppy image without a harddrive image to see if the error remains. Try to access the floppy image from your system harddrive and see if the error sets. Are you attaching a floppy image when you try and boot your Win7 VHD? If not then I have to go back to it must be the way your bios handles USB harddrives in correlation with VBoot.

I also think it would be informative to try and boot your Win7 VHD from your internal harddrive not USB with Vboot not bootmgr. That maybe the best experiment in this case.
The next test would be to boot VBoot from internal drive and boot the Win7 VHD from USB. My guess is booting Vboot itself from USB is causing the error. Once you try several different configurations and and isolate the error you can eliminate it if possible.

Your right those errors can be ignored and wont cause any damage or further problems but they are quite annoying and do cause a pause in boot up.

P.S. I think your English is very good

Hi,

--- System bios settings --------------------------------------------------
System bios settings for USB storage (Bios Phoenix) : only these settings
<Integrated Péripherals> -->OnChip USB --> V1.1, V2.0
<In Boot Menu> --> Hard Disk Boot Priority -->
1 - Internal SATA Disk
2- USB-HDD
3- Bootable Add-in Cards
When I Boot from BOOT MENU, I selecte the entry

--- Grub.cfg -------------------------------------------------------------
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /vboot/grub/grubenv ]; then
have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
fi

if loadfont /vboot/fonts/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=1024x768
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi

insmod jpeg
background_image /vboot/grub/vmlite-logo.jpg

if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###


### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=red/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

menuentry "VHD W7-32 FR" {
vboot harddisk=(LABEL=W7Syst)/VHD-W7-32FR.vhd
}

### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

--- TEST for VBoot installed on harddisk Disk System -----------------------------
- Vbootldr.mbr, vbootldr, entry added to BCD --> suucesfully installed on harddisk C:
- W7 VHD diskfile (20 Go) --> on disk system C:\
- Configure grub.cfg (C:\vboot\grub\) for starting W7 VHD diskfile (with using LABEL format) : OK
- Reboot --> bootmgr --> select VBoot --> W7 VHD
- The results : exactly the same for --> 3 - Boot W7 VHD from VBoot (on external USB2 Disk) and these 2 errors always appears
From VBoot menu <-- T0
To 1st bios disk error <-- T = ~ 50 sec
To 2d bios disk error <-- T = ~ 1 min 35 sec
To Starting Windows 7 <-- T = ~ 2 min 50 sec to > 3 min
--------------------------
Yes : it seems those errors and boot time are very annoying and I don't know why they appear in this case ?
Is-it vbootldr ? All works fine when I Boot W7 VHD from W7 bootmgr directly?
There is no floppy image attached when I try and boot from Win7 VHD

- No, I've not tried to access a floppy image from system harddrive ?

PS @bitartrate : thank you for your indulgence

Many Thanks for your support and suggestions
Christian