Bugs? - have had strange things happen. . .

[TechFan]

I have had a few successful migrations and several that just aren't working properly.

I have one such IDE window 2000 server I am trying to migrate. I have done it twice with the same results.

Errors:

1.) After it reboots after installing the service. . .the service fails to start. . .so, if I manually do a repair of the service by using add/remove programs. - after that, running a convertion processes successfully.

2.) After imaging, the VM's drives are mounted backwards (C, D are partitions on the IDE drive). . .(F is the partition on an external SCSI RAID). . .the virtual disk with F is mounted as SCSI 0:0 while the C,D virtual disk is mounted as SCSI 0:1. After deleting the drives and adding them back in the correct order, the system then boots successfully.

3.) Now this is where I am currently stuck. . .after booting, I try to go to computer management to check the event logs. . .and I get "snap-in failed to initialize" Computer Management \{crazy-SID-numbers}

These issues have happen both times I have tried to do this P2V convertion. The lingering one is the one that is keeping me from doing this live. . .

I am not sure what else might be broken. . .

[TechFan]

I have found that the image has corruption even though I have done it twice and both said it completed successfully. . .did checkdisk and it found lots of probs. . .I am wondering if it has to do with resizing the disks. Going to try it again without resizing.

[TechFan]

Well, I chose to do it without resizing volume and the issues disappeared. . .so best advice is to resize with other tools after conversion.

[esiebert7625]

Here's why your drives were probably mixed up....

Source with mixed IDE and SCSI disks might not produce a bootable virtual machine

A source machine with both SCSI and IDE disks has the IDE disks attached to the end of the disk list. If the source machine boots from an IDE disk, the target virtual machine created by Converter boots from the wrong disk because a VMware virtual machine looks for the first disk in the disk list. Workaround:

1. Boot the imported virtual machine and press F2 to enter the BIOS

2. Go to the Boot menu

3. Highlight the Hard Drive row and press Enter

4. Change the boot order of the disks so that the system disk is first

5. Continue

[esiebert7625]

When you choose to re-size a drive Converter does a file by file copy to the new VM and only copies the amount of data equal to the size of the files on the source disks. If you do not re-size the disks then Converter does a block by block disk level copy instead copying the entire drive, free space and all. Generally it's better to not re-size if possible, it's also better to do a cold clone to avoid any potential data corruption.

[TechFan]

When you choose to re-size a drive Converter does a

file by file copy to the new VM and only copies the

Yes, I have heard this. I will do my resizing afterwards from now on. . .

it's also better to do a cold clone to avoid any

potential data corruption.

Yes, I wish I could do that, but the free converter doesn't make that possible. . .

[esiebert7625]

It's also a good idea to shutdown any un-necessary services beforehand.

[TechFan]

Here's why your drives were probably mixed up....

Source with mixed IDE and SCSI disks might not

produce a bootable virtual machine

I figured it was probably because IDE got lower priority in the convertion.

1. Boot the imported virtual machine and press F2

to enter the BIOS

2. Go to the Boot menu

3. Highlight the Hard Drive row and press Enter

4. Change the boot order of the disks so that the

system disk is first

5. Continue

Thanks. Good idea. . .I had just removed the disks and re-inserted them in the proper order. . .probably better in the long run anyway. . .