VMWare Converter 3.0.3 Giving "Unable to determine guest operating system" on Windows 2000 SP4

[westes]

On a Windows 2000 SP4 server, I am running VMWare Converter 3.0.3 and select the "Physical machine" as the source.   VMWare scans the disk and gives "Unable to determine Guest Operating System" and refuses to go further.

What is VMWare Converter looking at to determine the target OS?  If I knew this I could look for permissions issues.    Are there any workarounds for this condition?

[linotelera]

Hi, as a workaround, you could try cold cloning... this means that a CD with a converter version must be written and server must be offline.

Check documentation https://www.vmware.com/pdf/VMware_Converter_manual303.pdf (CAP 5) to build CD and proceed with conversion.

[westes]

Cold clone CD for 3.0.3 gives the exact same error.  It is unable to determine guest operating system.

[wila]

Hi,

FWIW, discussion moved from Workstation Pro to VMware Converter Standalone as you'll likely get better answers here.

I can see that with an old operating system you are using an old converter product, but have you tried using Converter 6.0 at all?

--
Wil

[westes]

3.0.3 is one of the last releases that still supports Windows 2000.    6.0 would fail immediately with a message saying it doesn't support that OS.

[wila]

Hi,

Ok, didn't know that the recent Converter does not support Windows 2000 anymore.

You're already on SP4 or I would have suggested to run the SP4 update.

If converter doesn't work then you might have to resort to a disk imaging solution like Norton Ghost or a system backup and restore to virtual.

--

Wil

[a_p_]

Unfortunately I can't reproduce this. Anyway, here are some thoughts:

• Do you have access to VMware Converter 4.0 or 4.01, which lists "Windows 2000 SP4" as a supported host and guest OS?
• Did you logon to Windows 2000 using the "Administrator" account, i.e. not just an account with administrative privileges? This might make a difference, because some local security policies in Windows 2000 were/are tied to the Administrator's user account rather than to the Administrator group.

André

[westes]

a.p., I have been looking for any version of VMWare Converter 4 to download, but VMWare took them all down from the downloads.   That was short sighted of them.   I would like to try it.  Any ideas how I can?

Of course I logged in as an Administrative account, but I have never had a problem in the past with any resource not being available to other Administrative users.   I still like your theory.   Can you give an example of this case?

What would be most valuable to this situation would be some understanding of *how* VMWare Converter determines the OS and what resources it is examining for this purpose.