A virtual machine is a computer file, typically called an image, that behaves like an actual computer. In other words, creating a computer within a computer. Windows Server 2019 is the operating system that connects on-premises environments to Azure. You benefit from additional layers of security and the modernization of your applications and infrastructures. See the following guides on how to perform an in-place upgrade for Windows Server 2012 to 2019, and how to perform an in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2019. See these guides on some related contents: How to fix VirtualBox Displaying only 32 bits Option, how to enable Hyper-V on a VMware Workstation, How to remove recent connections from the vSphere Client, and how to create and add a new virtual disk to a Windows virtual machine in VMware.

Below is the error message prompted. Windows Server 2019 failed because of the Kernel driver that is missing. For a very similar VMware error, see this guide "VMware Status code 0xc000014c, the boot configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors".

Startup failure — Screenshot 2020 11 14 at 21.56.07 1

Windows Server 2019 — Screenshot 2020 11 14 at 21.56.07 1

Virtual Machine Startup Error Details

Furthermore, When you click on details, more information about the error message will be displayed. As you can see the virtual machine has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (1×0).

To fix this issue, There are a couple of steps to follow and hopefully, one of the steps will help in resolving this issue.
1: Discard Saved State. It could be that the VM was closed abnormally and resulted in a corrupt state. There proceed and delete the saved state. I hope this helps.
– To do this, right click on the Virtual Machine and select Discard Saved State
2: Re-install VirtualBox. This will address the issue “kernel driver is not installed that was reported.
3: Upgrade/Update VirtualBox: This will also address any underlying “kernel driver is not installed that was reported.

After upgrade, you may decide to download a new Windows Server OS version / build, re-download the Windows ISO file from the Microsoft website and load it as shown below. See the following guides on how to perform an in-place upgrade for Windows Server 2012 to 2019, and how to perform an in-place upgrade from Windows Server 2016 to Windows Server 2019.

To fix this error, detach the attached optical drive “i.e., remove the corrupted Windows ISO file as shown below. see the steps discussed here “how to install Windows Server 2019 on VirtualBox”.