If you get to the BIOS of VM what drive mode is it set for?

any recent changes you have made that you are aware off to both host & guest??

by any chance had you configured the server for mini dumps, so that we can see what is causing blue screens?

Are you able to get through safe mode etc?

Hi Guys,

I can get to the BIOS but that doesn't really offer much....we've tried changing the vmware SCSI controller from LSI Logic SAS to Parallel but nothing happens.

As for minidumps not 100% sure if this is configured, we can't boot into Safe Mode either. I did try debug mode but was unable to locate the log file after.

This screams at me as driver related, the underlying files are all fine...

The only thing I did was install IIS so nothing bad and I had to restart after that anyway...and no ESXI changes since we installed it years ago.

Restore from backup we’ve had this and spent wasted hours trying to resolve and it was a corrupted disk which looks like an inaccessible boot disk Stop 0x7d

you’d like to think I had a backup of the VM wouldn’t you :/

as I mentioned the files are all intact though, I could probably install another windows OS and reinstall the software ... what about maybe converting to hyper-V or an upgrade to 2016? anything to get it to repair ? just thinking out loud

If you have a copy of Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15 or later then you could boot this machine from its WinPE ISO and do AdjustOS to adjust Windows to the hardware it cannot boot from now.

You will find most Windoze OS now have to perform an in place upgrade from within the working started OS!

Again the files maybe intact or corrupt We’ve seen this issue many times you could try a conversion although again we’ve also seen these fail!

As this OS is End of life from Jan 2020 I would take the opportunity to create a new VM with 2019 and reinstall the services you need and transfer the data than waste time on fixing

Dont have Paragon Hard Disk Manager 15, trying to see if there's an ISO available or a trial version / free version ?...

I am not sure if a free version would work with Windows Server.
They have a 30 days refund warranty, you could try it and give back.

Hiya, is this the software you speak of ? I think I'll purchase it now just to see if it can do the job...although it doesn't mention if it works on Servers

The one below with Business version is what you need. As said you can always get refund for it.

the software ended up being too expensive to purchase for sever version. Any other thoughts before I have to reinstall from scratch ?

If repair installation is not an option then you have to reconfigure it from scratch.

options Repair using CD-ROM or install new server 2019 and transfer the services and data!

but as I posted earlier complete waste of time trying to repair

get on with new server install

Use BCDEdit to reset your boot configuration database. Since the OS partition is there and the files are seemingly okay then Windows may have lost the pointer to that partition.

had to reinstall in the end was unfixable

I'm afraid this happens, and why backups are important.