Windows XP Mode import failure. Help?

[macfanboy]

Hi,

I have a Mac running VMware Player on Windows 7 Pro via Boot Camp (and VMware Fusion, but it's running natively at the moment). I have installed and set up Windows XP Mode, and wish to import it into VMware Player to get the better performance. However, when I try to import it, I get a message saying "ERROR: Unknown error returned by VMware Converter Agent." This occurs whether XP mode is hibernated or shut down. In the log, one of the lines is this: "[2010-02-02 16:06:35.948 'P2V' 4272 error] Task failed: P2VError UNKNOWN_METHOD_FAULT(sysimage.fault.ReconfigFault)". The XP mode VM still runs fine in Virtual PC, as I hear it should. I posted the entire log if it helps.

Anyone know how to fix this?

-macfanboy

[macfanboy]

anyone? please? i need this fixed as soon as possible.

[macfanboy]

guys, please? anyone?! little update: i tried shutting down the xp mode virtual machine in virual pc completely (as opposed to just hibernating it), and it still returns the exact same error in vmware player.

[WoodyZ]

Have a look at the following thread for a different way of using Windows XP Mode Virtual Machine instead of using Converter:

[macfanboy]

i'm not having activation issues, i'm having issues getting the virtual machine itself to actually convert. in other words, VMware Player will fail when converting the XP mode virtual machine to one that VMware can run. I also tried installing Vcenter Converter in the virtual machine itself, and that also failed.

[WoodyZ]

I know you're not having Activation issues and I provided that link for you to see two things, "xpMode.enabled = "TRUE"" and "In Player 3.0 there is an option in the file menu "Import Windows XP Mode VM"" because it sounded like you were trying to use Converter but if you did select "Import Windows XP Mode VM" from the file menu then sorry.

[macfanboy]

I was aware of both. I tried the import option in "File" first, and tried running Converter in XP itself second. Neither worked; both fail with similar errors about 2 minutes in, near 5% completion. 😞

[SvenGus]

I can confirm that this bug still exists in the most recent VMware Player 3.1, and it probably must have something to do with Apple's Boot Camp: i.e., without Boot Camp installed (but this isn't really a rational scenario, as one would indeed like to install Boot Camp as soon as possible, much before installing additional programs like VMware Player...), the Player can import XP Mode without problems, but after installing Boot Camp (and then trying to import XP Mode) there is the same error message reported above in this discussion.

I'm talking above all about native Boot Camp, here, and not nested Player inside Fusion (where, anyway, the same things happen: so it could indeed depend on something that Boot Camp installs and/or modifies on the PC, in "real" or "virtual" mode).

[SvenGus]

I tried to import again with the latest Player (3.1.2) on a new native (Boot Camp) Windows 7 x64, and the problem still exists (at least, on a mid-2009 MacBook Pro): importing XP Mode fails.

This time, however, I uninstalled Apple's Boot Camp Services (v. 3.1), and retried to import XP Mode from Player: indeed, it succeeded!

(Then, of course, I reinstalled Boot Camp 3.0 from the Mac OS X DVD and updated it to 3.1.)

So, again, probably there is something that doesn't "play" quite well between Player and Boot Camp, when importing XP Mode (otherwise, everything seems to be OK: no problems)...