SOLVED Fully Updated Windows 7 hates my VMs

[knoober]

Here is another of my favorite sort of problem. I jumped through hoops to get a working updater in Win7 and now the updates are killing my fun.
Step 1)Make an ISO with working Windows Update. Thanks again, I am glad to have this issue fixed

Step 2) Freshly install system on brand new drive. Update completely and set up your PC while you do (add programs, set desktop , etc,etc)

Step 3) Wonder why VirtualBox isnt working and troubleshoot (uninstall/reinstall/sfc...etc) -> move to vmware to see if it has the same issue and it does

Step 4) Confirm that a different PC is having hte same problem ... it isnt. The only difference between the one having the problem and the other is OS version. THe one with broken VMs is Win7_Pro and the other is Win7_HomePremium. Both had been through the Service Configuration Shuffle.

Step 5) blame some unknown service being shut off and try to find which one it is -> give up on finding it -> Do a complete reinstall because it will save days of troubleshooting service configs and searching

Step 6) set up your desktop machine again and confirm that VMs (when I say VMs I mean I tested Virtualbox and VMware) are working (skip the service config shuffle this time for troubleshooting purposes). Finish installing programs and comeback the next day to find Vms broken again. Boooo!

Step 7) Start rolling back restore points until you get working VMs again.... oh no! you are pretty much back to a fresh install with only the VMs on it. But atleast it is working right? And now we can figure out what broke it! yay!

Step 8) reinstall programs 1 at a time and retest between each 1. Make sure you still have working VMs. But before we do anything else, lets finish those updates that dissapeared when the restore point roll back happened in step 7, then get a good system image to work from.

Step 9) Be very angry with M$ because now you have to spend all day figuring out which one of their updates is killing VMs.

Thanks for reading all that

My question is: Is there a faster way then installing 60+ updates 1x1 and retesting after each one?

Edit: Apparently in an attempt to drive me crazy VMs now work I had thought I installed all updates but there were 2 more. areter installing them I have VMs again. Back to installing programs 1 at a time. I would of course still love to hear anything informative anyone might have to say

 

[TransformedBG]

Just Curious... When you made the ISO did you strip the drivers and such? like did you make it from the same PC? or a different PC?

But if you had a server you could download the updates to the server then distribute them 1 by 1...

 

[trents]

Looking at the link he gives for the ISO build instructions, I don't thing he started with an installer that would have had drivers slipstreamed into it when he built his ISO. The instructions referenced speak of using factory installation media as the base.

 

[knoober]

Just Curious... When you made the ISO did you strip the drivers and such? like did you make it from the same PC? or a different PC?

Made from a different PC and "bought from the store" installation DVD

But if you had a server you could download the updates to the server then distribute them 1 by 1...

Honestly I have been trying to set something like that up (caching proxy) in my NAS/Etc (see sig) but something went screwey with the lst upgrade and I had to start over on a few things. Now Im trying to get the windows machine straightened out while rebuilding the NAS. Realisitically I could mark this one SOLVED but Im not sure why the issue happend or if it will recurr so I will leave it open for a little while longer to see if anyone else chimes in. Thank you to everyone who has stopped in at this thread already

 

[knoober]

It seems I may have been premature in blaming windows as Java caused a break also. The fix was to uninstall Java -> Uninstall VMs -> restart ---> make sure to install java before the virtaul machine. Everything seems to be working now. I will update this thread as neccesary if the issue persists, but for now I am just going to call it solved. Thanks again guys.

 

[habbajabba]

Too bad the vm soft isn't as one unit. Having to make sure everything is the exactly the same version is kinda annoying. Doesn't do anything for an automatic update process either.