Windows boot recovery

By steve, 11 September, 2019

Today I needed to recover a windows server that would not boot, and was getting a stop error. It had been converted from VMWare to HyperV, and the boot devices were not loading.

The fix was as follows:

  • Boot from the windows installation CD (or into recovery mode if the local admin password is known)
  • Get to a recovery command prompt
  • Run regedit.exe
  • Click on the HKLM top level item
  • Open File->Load Hive
  • Browse to D:\windows\system32\config\SYSTEM and load this hive. You can choose any name for the "Key Name" when prompted (e.g. LIVESYSTEM)
  • Find the appropriate drivers in LIVESYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ and set the "Start" to 0 (and possibly the "ErrorControl" to 1). The list obtained from the link below for HyperV Gen 1 machines is:
    • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\IntelIde]
    • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\PCIIde]
    • [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\atapi]

The registry keys were obtained from:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/michs/2011/09/16/p2v-migration-issu…

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