Troubleshooting

The handful of things that occasionally go sideways — and exactly what to do about each.

VM window closes immediately

Open %USERPROFILE%\PortaPuterVM\qemu.log (next to Launcher.exe). It logs every QEMU invocation and exit code — the last few lines almost always tell you what went wrong.

Windows asks for the BitLocker key

Use the key saved during capture — Desktop\PortaPuter-BitLocker-Recovery.txt on the source PC. This can happen on the host after capture if firmware or boot settings shift.

Boot loops or 0x7B BSOD

The captured Windows can't find a SATA driver. Try the Safe Mode shortcut first. If that fails, edit vm.conf in %USERPROFILE%\PortaPuterVM and switch the disk bus to virtio (see the inline comments).

Windows says "not activated"

Cosmetic. The OEM activation is tied to the original machine's hardware, so the VM may show as deactivated. Windows still runs normally.

Not enough space on the destination

The output is roughly the used space on C: (Disk2vhd skips free blocks). Make sure the destination drive has at least 1.2× that much free before installing.