Hello "The drivers you're using are the culprits" look for this line here: http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29628&p=133692&hilit=ich8#p133692 that was the pointer 'cos things worked when I tried Intel Storage Manager 7.8 driver. Back to nlite modded 32-bit ICH6-10 ver 9.6.0.1014: VB-IDE, VB-Sata, VMPlayer -> BSOD modded 32-bit 8.9.6.1002: VB-IDE, VB-Sata, VMPlayer -> OK So, driver from certain version won't work. The next thing to do is to install the nlited cd to the real physical ICH8 system. Lastly, thank you to all who gave pointers.