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RDinMN
Contributor
Contributor

Once and for all, can a WinXP Virtual Machine on a Virtual PC 7.03 for Mac PPC be moved to VMWare Fusion?

Hi, newbie here.

I've searched the web and tried using VMWare Converter all to no avail.

I am trying to move a .VPC7 Win XP Pro image from a Mac G5 to an Intel Core2Duo iMac. Does anyone know, definitively, whether this is possible or not?

I know VMWare Converter doesn't work on VPC7 for Mac. I found a copy of VMWare Importer 2.0. Will that work?

If it will work, can someone post instructions? Meanwhile I'm trying out Importer and will gladly post any successes.

Thanks.

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asatoran
Immortal
Immortal

I know VMWare Converter doesn't work on VPC7 for Mac....

Install Converter inside of the XP VPC virtual machine. Then select to convert the "local machine". (IOW, run it as a Windows program, not a Mac program.)

Alternatively, if the XP VPC virtual machine can be accessed on the LAN, then you can start the XP VPC virtual machine, then run Converter on any other Windows machine and choose to convert the "remote" XP machine. (Just like you would to convert any physical "remote" machine.)

You can also use programs like Ghost or Trueimage to image the VPC virtual machine and restore it to a new blank Fusion virtual machine.

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RDinMN
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately, Converter's manual explicitly states that virtual machines created by VPC for Mac are not supported. I tried it anyway just like you suggested, from within the virtual machine itself, but it comes back with some VSS error every time. Also, I have no PCs at home so the solution has to be made through Macs and virtual Windows only.

It seems that Importer (Converter's predecessor) was able to convert VPC for Mac virtual machines but the info I get from the internet isn't quite clear. Thanks for the Ghost/Trueimage tip, I'll check that out.

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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

It seems that Importer (Converter's predecessor) was able to convert VPC for Mac virtual machines but the info I get from the internet isn't quite clear. Thanks for the Ghost/Trueimage tip, I'll check that out.

Importer is not Converters predecessor and as a matter of fact VMware Converter exist before VMware Fusion if only by it original name P2V Assistant. Importer originally was a standalone Mac OS X based application that actually got rolled into Fusion 2 and VMware Converter in any of it incarnates and or names has never been a Mac OS X application.

If you don't have Ghost or similar you can also boot the Virtual machine with a Live Linux OS CD/DVD/ISO Image and use dd to create a disk image that can be written to a VMware Virtual Disk although understand that without a product like VMware Converter which does some preprocessing to enable the machine, physical or virtual to be run under a VMware product you may have to do some tweaking manually if you go the Disk Image route.

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RDinMN
Contributor
Contributor

I'm thoroughly confused now because when I search for Importer in VMware's site, I get pointed to the Converter page. They only had Importer documentation archived but not the app itself. I found Importer in a non-VMware site and it's a .exe file. I have to search for the OS-X version then.

Any tips from anyone are still welcome.

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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

AFAIK VMware Importer is no longer available on VMware web site and whatever exe you downloaded is not how VMware Importer was packaged.

Yes the link takes you to VMware vCenter Converter however it used to take you to VMware-Importer-1.0.0-70999.zip before it was rolled into Fusion 2 and VMware Converter has always been for the Windows Platform until v4 with now runs on and supports Linux too.

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RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership

You can try things the manual way - using Ghost or other similar disk imaging/restore program. You will need a bootable disk for the Ghost (or other program). First, create a new Windows XP virtual machine in Fusion. Don't power it on yet. Boot the Virtual PC VM with the Ghost disk, and create an image for it. Then, boot the Fusion VM with the Ghost disk, and restore the image onto the new virtual disk. Then, you can run Converter or Importer or similar VMware utility and ONLY select the "Reconfigure" step - you have already done the imaging step - in order to inject the correct drivers so that the VM will properly boot.

Refer to the "Ultimate P2V Utility" on the RTFM site. http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?cat=10 Note that if you use this method and can power on both virtual machines and have them connected via a network, you don't actually have to create the .gho Ghost image - you can merely image across the network.

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RParker
Immortal
Immortal

Unfortunately, Converter's manual explicitly states that virtual machines created by VPC for Mac are not supported.

That's correct, but look at his post CLOSELY. It clearly states inside, if it's inside the guest, that means it's a physical machine, the converter has no idea it's a 'Virtual' machine, it will assume it's a standard PC.

That's the key. You can't expect it to convert a vhd file to vmdk, but it WILL run inside a guest and fully function as a supported OS..

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RDinMN
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you Messrs. Parker & Petruska for your suggestions. I tried Converter again from inside the virtual XP machine several times and it always comes up with a particular VSS error. I've googled the particular error and the recommended solution requires some registry work that is too hairy for me. I will try some other hard drive imaging software and see if that works.

A few hours later . . .

I give up. Too much of a time suck. I found a much easier solution to installing a free Windows OS on VMware Fusion: Install Windows 7 RC. Yeah it's only free for a year but gotta upgrade from XP eventually and buying Vista now doesn't make much sense.

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