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Windows 7 VM on VMware workstation pro will no longer boot

I have a windows 7 VM that has been running under VMware workstation pro V15.5.1 for several years.  For some reason now, it will not boot but gives me an error screen showing
Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause....

Status 0xc0000225
The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.  

I have mounted the installation disk and tried to do a repair with no success.
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Carl Webster
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I did restore a backup and it has the same error.
How old is the backup ?

Something has got corrupted within the VM.
I restored from September.  I will try an older backup.  I can mount the volume and see the files.
Has the configuration of the VM changed in any way ?

It could be corruption of the Windows 7 OS, the registry.

Can you select Safe Mode and start up ?

Can you select a Last Known Good Configuration.

Standard Windows 7 troubleshooting procedures.
I did try to boot into safe mode and last know good with no change.  I did the normal W7 startup procedures.  Is there anything in the VM config file that could cause this?  I did install a VMware update since I last used this VM.
I just booted a Windows 7 x64 VM I had on VMWare Workstation 15.5.1 and it works fine.  I suspect the hard drive where these VM files are hosted might be failing.  Can you copy the VM files to an external hard drive and add the VM from there and test it?
check host event viewer to see if you have reflections of disk error as earlier comments suggest as a possible issue.

Do you Windows 7 media to boot the VM from and attempt a repair of the boot sector.
So what was the solution?