VMware Communities: Message List - Need guidance converting XP Pro physical machine

Re: Need guidance converting XP Pro physical machine

ozarkcanoer — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:55:28 GMT

Thanks, That helps. I reran the conversion not selecting the 2Gb option since I'm putting the file eventually onto a NTSF USB drive to copy onto my iMac. For my 54Gb physical system it took about 10 hours. Hopefully it will run on the iMac so I don't have to convert again.

My Windows system was custom built for me so it isn't a name brand. Hopefully I'll be able to reactivate the license.

Larry

Re: Need guidance converting XP Pro physical machine

asatoran — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 21:36:02 GMT

Keeping the original disk size is often faster. Resizing the disk forces Converter to do a file copy instead of a block copy. With many small files, this takes longer.

The 2GB option splits the virtual disk in to 2GB chunks. This is because FAT32 has a 2GB file size limitation. OSX can read/write FAT32, but can only read NTFS. So depending on how you plan to reansport the converted VM to you Mac, if you plan to run it from a external HD, the drive would have to be formatted FAT32 or HFS. And if FAT32, then you need the 2GB split file option. I'm assuming you're going to copy the VM to the Mac's internal HD. Then you don't need to split to 2GB, but if you ever have to manually repair the VMDK file, it's easier with split disks. (You didn't ask, but you can leave the hard disk to "growable" if you want to. You probably won't notice the difference in speed if you choose preallocated/non-growable.)

I don't know about the not booting from C. You could get this error if your machine is a dualboot system and the boot manager is not on the C: partition. If that's the case, you'll want to search the knowledgebase and forums for procedures on converting dual-boot systems.

And yes, you will have to reactivate Windows. If the copy of Windows is and OEM version that came with your system and it's a branded system (Dell, HP, etc.) then you may have problems activating. OEM copies are tied to the physical hardware and usually can't be reactivated except on the same brand hardware. If the copy is a retail version, then you should be able to reactivate ok.

Need guidance converting XP Pro physical machine

ozarkcanoer — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:52:58 GMT

I have purchased an iMac with OS X 10.5 and Fusion. I want to convert my existing physical XP Pro SP2 system to a virtual machine on OS X.

I downloaded and ran VMWare Converter on the XP system. The conversion parameters I used were to put the converted image onto a second, empty internal NTSF drive (E:) and chose the minimal disk size instead of maintaining the current C: drive size and checked the 2Gb option. The task took 10 hours on a P4 2.8Ghz machine but it did finally complete. I did get one message at the beginning saying that since I only selected the C: drive to convert that I wouldn't be able to boot the virtual machine. Is this right? Should I have chosen to maintain the C: drive size during the conversion? I'm not certain about that 2Gb option either.

Basically I'm looking for guidance as to the best choices to make in moving my XP system to run under Fusion. I am planning to remove the internal E: drive and connect it to a USB2 interface for doing the file transfer onto the iMac.

thanks for any suggestions or references.

Once I get past this phase and actually put the files on the iMac and launch Fusion, will I have to validate my Windows license somehow to run on the new hardware?

Larry