Windows dirty shutdown after VM restore

[vmw9]

I restored a VM from a cloned snapshot.

after I power it back up I get a dirty shutdown

any idea why? I am using VMware sychronizatoin backups

[aprice119 · Accepted solution]

Hi Tony.

Since snapshots are point-in-time images of a machine they only know about the state of the machine when the snapshot was taken. If you take a snapshot while the machine is powered on, the data inside the snapshot reflects a "powered on" VM. When you restore it from a backup and boot it there's a conflict between the state the VM thought it was in (running) and the states it is actually in (cold booted). It's the same thing if you do a hard shutdown with the power button. Since Windows couldn't shutdown and write that it properly shutdown, it shows the shutdown tracker. You'd also see the corresponding event log entry about an unexpected shutdown or crash.

Alan