Trying to import a physical machine

[Kajukenbokid]

Using the VMware converter import wizard, I target an old win2k machine on the local network and I am able to connect and select the drive/volume. I get stuck on the screen where the wizard ask for the virtual machine name and location.

I enter in some random name for the virtual manchine but I just can't get it to accept a location. I keep getting path does not exist errors ... it is clear I don't understand this point of the process. Is it asking for a place to store the new virtual machine?

My goal is to create a virtual clone of an old win2k box and run it using Workstation.

Any help would be appreciated.

Stefan

[dconvery]

Stefan -

The name and location refer to the VM name and location for the VMX, VMDK and associated files. In your case, it would need to be a share on the machine running worksation.

Dave

[asatoran]

I'm going to assume your destination is not ESX. I'm also going to assume that that Converter is NOT being run on the Win2k machine being converted. In that case, see page 35 of the users manual ."Virtual Machine Name" is the name you want to call this converted machine. "Location" is the path where you want to store the virtual machine files. If a local pathname doesn't work, try a UNC path name. (e.g.: c:\virtual machines\win2k or
172.16.1.100\c$\virtual machines\win2k.)

If you are running converter on the Win2k machine, then "Location" cannot be the drive you're converting. It must be another drive on that machine or a shared location somewhere on the network.

[Kajukenbokid]

HI,

Thanks for the help. I was able to get it to work by installing the VMware converter on the target machine where I had the vmdk files saved to the box where I have Workstation installed.

From there I used the import wizard in Workstation to load up the VM.

Everything works well except for an old DOS game I have on this box ... it runs, but is too slow. Funny, given that every other program (and the OS itself) runs faster as a VM than the actual physical box - it's an really old machine.

-

Anyone have a solution for running a DOS game using VMware Workstation? I am trying to run Master of Orion 1.3 (made in 1993!) and was not able to get it to work with a Win98 VM using VMware Fusion on my Mac. Would it be reasonable to think that it might work out better on the Workstation installed on an XP box?

Thanks again,

Stefan

[asatoran]

Workstation wouldn't necessarily be better than Fusion for DOS. The virtual machine hardware in Workstation 6 is the same as Fusion. Can you run the game if you reboot Win98 in DOS mode? With a few games, I've had to just press F8 to get to the Win98 boot menu and boot to command prompt only rather than starting Win98 and having Windows reboot to DOS mode.

[Kajukenbokid]

Hi,

Thanks for the tips.

My Win98 VM doesn't seem to have DOS or atleast, I am not able to access it. When I try to get into DOS the screen just turns black with no prompt.

Any suggestions?

Stefan

[asatoran]

Which DOS screen? "Command Prompt Only" from the F8 boot menu, or a DOS shortcut with the checkbox for MS-DOS mode? (Not just a MS-DOS prompt.)

You can also make a DOS boot disk by formatting a floppy disk and chcking "Make startup disk." Copy FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.COM from the C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND directory. With that boot disk you can format a hard disk and make it bootable and not have to go through Windows, just like if you went to "Command Prompt Only" from the F8 menu.

[Kajukenbokid]

I tried restarted Win98 by selecting the option boot into DOS. Nothing happens - it freezes.

I don't have a floppy drive on this machine so that option is out.

Does anyone have a DOS VM that will read USB or CD roms?

Thanks again,

Stefan

[asatoran]

DOS won't work with USB. And you'd need the DOS CD drivers for CONFIG.SYS and MSCDEX.EXE to make a CD readable in DOS.

But you don't need a physical floppy. Change your VM's settings to point to floppy drive to a image instead of physical drive. Click Create to create a new image file.