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fruitjam
Contributor
Contributor

Converting a VM with SCSI controller to IDE.

I am near certain that this question may have already been answered somewhere. Either I am too lazy or am downright incompetent to find it. But could someone please explain how I could possibly convert a VM with a SCSI controller to one with an IDE one? Any pointers to an appropriate earlier, or concurrent, discussion on this forum would be welcome.

The VM was built on VM Workstation 8.

I need to run this VM in VirtualBox as well.

Many thanks in advance.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

the conversion is trivial - but you should be aware that an already installed OS will no longer boot.
So please tell us your guestOS


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

fruitjam
Contributor
Contributor

Windows 7 64 Bit Professional OEM (System Builder Pack).

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

hmm - a Systembuilder OEM may cause issues when you want to reactivate it after conversion.

Anyway - make a full copy of the directory of your VM before you try it.

preparations:
add a IDE-disk to the existing VM
assign it as IDE0:1
Boot VM and make sure the drive is detected.
Power off the VM

Then edit the vmx-file.

Change
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:0.fileName = "whatever name you used.vmdk"

to


scsi0:0.present = "false"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "whatever name you used.vmdk"


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

fruitjam
Contributor
Contributor

I will try this out and certainly post the result.

Do you think it would be easier to just call Microsoft, explain what I want, and then seek to reactivate this?

Why do I need to add an IDE disk at all?

In case, and I think it would be, VMware Tools is installed, should I uninstall that? If it is required to be uninstalled, when within the process that you have outlined, should I do it?

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

I add the IDE disk as step 1 to make sure that IntelIDE driver is established in registry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CriticalDeviceDatabase

without an appropriate entry in that key the VM would bluescreen at first boot attempt.

What is the final goal of your attempt ?
Run the VM inside VirtualBOX ?
Then you dont need to do this at all

please attach your vmx-file


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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fruitjam
Contributor
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Yes, the final goal is to run the VM in VirtualBox.

In case you are curious to know why I intend doing that is because loading the Windows 7 64 Bit OS in a VirtualBox VM allows me to install the manufacturer's device drivers which came along with my laptop. That is the only reason behind my plan to move away from VMware to VirtualBox.

I hope to be able to attach the file in a few hours from now.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

why would you want to install device drivers for your host inside a VM ?
A VM has different hardware than your host - no matter if it is a VMware or VirtualBox VM


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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fruitjam
Contributor
Contributor

I run Ubuntu which I find quite fast. In fact, I have been using Ubuntu for some time now.

I noticed that while I could load the device drivers, admittedly barring a handful of them, on VirtualBox VM, I could not do so in a VMware VM.

Since, I did not wish to install any pirated copy, I had purchased a Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit license to make certain Windows-only applications to work.

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fruitjam
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Contributor

I followed your instructions. The VM, however, went into a boot loop, so to speak, when started in VirtualBox.

May be I made a mistake.

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