A File I/o Error Occurred While Accessing Vmware Converter and other critical errors can occur when your Windows operating system becomes corrupted. Opening programs will be slower and response times will lag. When you have multiple applications running, you may experience crashes and freezes. There can be numerous causes of this error including excessive startup entries, registry errors, hardware/RAM decline, fragmented files, unnecessary or redundant program installations and so on.You can repair your os by this tool. http://microsoftsupporthelp.org/a-file-io-error-occurred-while-accessing-vmware-converter/

Here are some nice blogs for troubleshooting as well. . VMWare Convertor – A file I/O error occurred while accessing | The Telarah Technology Times

Hm, just a wild guess, but can you try to connect to Converter Server using IP address instead of connecting to local server? I mean you would still connect to the local server, but through the network interface. If you have installed it locally on the source then you can connect to 127.0.0.1. If you have installed Converter in local mode (default) then you would need to run the installer again, select the Modify option and add the Remote connection feature.

If this doesn't help you can try to install the Converter Server on another machine and point it to the physical source.

My sollution: start the VM what you want to clone, then copy it as a phsycal machine. I wasnt able to find better sollution.

Joci

It's very likely you have a problem with the DNS for one or more of your hosts.  Check in C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\logs  and look for the vmware-converter-worker-*.txt files.  You'll probably find strings such as "Error: Host address lookup for server <yourhostname> failed: No such host is known"  Fix these DNS issues (NB: you might have the DNS records setup correctly, but an incorrect search suffix on your converter server) and vConverter will magically start working.

Many thanks!! That was exactly the problem I was having. The host I was trying to convert wasn't resolving the FQDN for the VMware host that the converter had chosen as a destination. Once I fixed that (by changing the DNS primary entry in the nic configuration on the host I was trying to convert) all worked well!

Even I used IP to connect to vcenter. It still show this error.

But I changed the DNS at NIC. Then it can RUN !!!

But I still don't know why relate to DNS.

In my case I start converter with PROXY mode to solve such issue!

Yes this seems to be a bug in the Converter 6.1 as well. Only seen it so far with Windows XP conversion, since i don't do much converting. There is some strange DNS dependency in the chain somewhere. Go ahead and edit the *hosts* file on the machine you are converting "source". (if you aren't update-able DNS servers). You will want to add an entry for the ESXi host you are using as a destination. <ip-address> <FQDN>

10.10.10.2 host.domain.com

If you are using a Vcenter server to connect with, i would add that in as well.

Using the Proxy Mode worked for me as well. No messing around with DNS, etc.

Thank you!

I was having this issue too, trying to clone a physical Windows Server located in our DMZ. Using Proxy mode worked perfectly, thank you all!

On my windows where I installed vcenter converter I added the vmware hypervisor names to the c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file:

192.168.1.5 Hypervisor.local

You find the Domain Name of the hypervisor in the:

- vSphere Client => hypervisor name or IP => configuration => DNS and Routing:

Name: Hypervisor

Domain: local

- vSphere Web Client => in the title of the left window

After adding the HOSTS entry converter worked perfectly.

disconnect the NIC and proceed to converting , you can add NIC later on,it will not affect your migrated system.

I got the same error message. We use static IP's on our server equipment and the VMware Converter correctly identified the FQDN for my source.

Where I used it the vCenter destination for the VMware Converter was located in a different DMZ than the source I was running the VMware Converter from. I had previously allowed TCP/443 on my firewall for traffic to the vCenter from the source, but also had to allow TCP/902 from the source I was running VMware Converter on to access the cluster (management) IP's of my VMware hardware.

It looks like the VMware Converter establishes the connection to the vCenter (as the destination "manager" for the clone to be created), but then allows the VMware Converter source to directly "talk to" the cluster (on one of it's IP's) to stream the virtual to the storage for creation.

Thanks, The DNS settings did fix my I/O problem!