mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
220-1102 Practice Question: A technician is troubleshooting a VM that fails…
A technician is troubleshooting a VM that fails to boot with the error 'Operating system not found'. The VM was working yesterday. The technician checks the virtual machine settings and sees that the virtual hard disk is attached to the IDE controller. What should the technician do first?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume the IDE controller is the problem and immediately try to change it to SCSI, but the error is actually caused by the boot order, not the storage controller type.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Check the VM's boot order in the BIOS and ensure the virtual hard disk is first
The error 'Operating system not found' indicates that the VM is attempting to boot from a device that does not contain a bootable operating system. Since the VM was working yesterday, the most likely cause is that the boot order in the VM's BIOS has been changed or reset, causing it to try booting from a non-bootable device (e.g., network or CD-ROM) before the virtual hard disk. Checking and correcting the boot order in the BIOS to prioritize the virtual hard disk is the logical first step before making configuration changes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reattach the virtual hard disk to the SCSI controller
Why it's wrong here
Reattaching the virtual hard disk to a SCSI controller is an incorrect troubleshooting step for an "Operating system not found" error if the VM was previously booting successfully from an IDE controller. While SCSI is a common and often preferred interface for VMs, a sudden boot failure is unlikely to be resolved by changing the controller type, which could even introduce new driver compatibility issues for the guest OS. The problem more likely lies with the existing boot configuration rather than the interface standard itself.
- ✓
Check the VM's boot order in the BIOS and ensure the virtual hard disk is first
Why this is correct
Checking the VM's boot order in the virtual BIOS/UEFI and ensuring the virtual hard disk is the primary boot device is the most appropriate action. An "Operating system not found" error frequently indicates that the VM is attempting to boot from a non-bootable device, such as a virtual CD-ROM drive, network adapter, or another empty virtual disk, before it tries the virtual hard disk containing the operating system. This common misconfiguration can easily occur accidentally or after certain VM operations.
- ✗
Increase the VM's memory allocation
Why it's wrong here
Increasing the VM's memory allocation would not resolve an "Operating system not found" error. This specific error message indicates that the system's bootloader cannot locate the operating system files on any configured boot device, a problem unrelated to available RAM. Insufficient memory typically manifests as performance degradation, application crashes, system freezes, or a kernel panic (e.g., a Blue Screen of Death in Windows) *after* the OS has begun to load, not a failure to find the OS entirely.
- ✗
Restore the VM from a recent snapshot
Why it's wrong here
Restoring from a snapshot reverts the entire VM state, including disk and memory, but it does not address the root cause of the IDE controller configuration. The VM fails to boot because the virtual hard disk is attached to an IDE controller, which the guest OS may not support for booting, whereas a snapshot would only restore a previous working state without altering the controller type. This option is tempting because snapshots are the standard recovery method for VM corruption or misconfiguration, and they would be correct if the failure stemmed from a recent software change or data corruption rather than a hardware interface mismatch.
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Related to this question
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SOHO Network Security
Key term
Virtual machine
A virtual machine (VM) is a software-based emulation of a physical computer that runs an operating system and applications just like a real machine, but is isolated and managed by a hypervisor on a host system.
Key term
Operating system
An operating system (OS) is the core software that manages a computer's hardware and software resources, providing common services for computer programs.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1202 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1202 exam.