VMware Communities
ginahoy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Can a live XP partition be cloned in a virtual machine?

I still rely heavily on an old XP machine to run legacy software that's no longer supported. It works fine for my needs but it's only a matter of time before the hardware fails, and it takes up a lot of space. Several years ago I built a high-end Linux box with lots of RAM as my primary computer with the intention of replicating my XP operating system in a virtual machine.

Reinstalling XP and legacy software from scratch on a virtual drive isn't an option for me.  I need to figure out how to restore or clone my live XP partition in a virtual machine. Is this is possible with Workstation Player? If not, what about Workstation Pro? Presumably I'd need to move the physical hard drive that contains the XP partition over to the Linux machine. 

I did this once before back in 2008, but in that case I used Acronis True Image to restore a backup image of a WinME partition onto a virtual drive hosted by MS Virtual PC running on the XP machine. Since Virtual PC didn't officially support restoring a live OS in a virtual machine, I had to rely on some smart folks in an online forum who had done it before. It's not something I'd care to go through again.

A friend told me he thinks Workstation Player supports what I'm trying to do but I found nothing about that in the manual. 

Reply
0 Kudos
1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
CarltonR
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

You have to excuse me, I'm getting rather confused . . . so if I get this right, you have an Win XP machine connect to your network, which you wish to image and open in VMware Workstation Player, however you are unable to access the Win XP machine through the network from your Win 10 laptop.

As this is the case, then I would suggest that you install the vCentre Converter software on the physical Win XP machine and preform a 'standalone' image, no network required.  Unless you have reason not to install anything additional onto the Win XP machine.  I would however suggest that you evaluate/experiment on a 'dummy' machine (or in a VM) before moving to the 'live' one.

Note: As I said previously, assuming everything goes as planned, you will need a Win XP Activation key once you bring it into Workstation Player.  Also, any installed applications which are are licensed to the 'hardware' may also need reactivation.

 

So, instructions . . .

  • Connect an external removable storage device with appropriate free storage capacity to the Win XP.
  • Install the vCentre Converter software (use the latest version to start with) onto the Win XP machine.
  • Run the vCentre Converter application.

Source System: select 'Powered on' and 'This Local Machine' press Next
Destination System:

Select destination type: select 'VMware Workstation or other VMware virtual' from the pulldown list

Select Product: select 'VMware Player 7.x/12x' from the pulldown list

Virtual Machine Details

Name: enter name for the image, give it a proper name

Select a location: browse to your external physical storage device

Press Next

Options: on the 'Data to copy' listing select 'Edit' and deselect your external removable storage device from the list, if present.  Review the other settings, but would suggest leaving as is, for the first run.

Press Next

Summary: review, and if acceptable, press 'Next'

  • The imaging will then commence

if there are any error then review, diagnose and correct.

  • If all is correct and present, move the external physical storage device to your Workstation Player machine, move the image files to a folder, using Workstation Player open the image as a VM.

View solution in original post

14 Replies
RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

You should be able to use the free VMware Converter

Reply
0 Kudos
scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
Jump to solution

https://www.vmware.com/products/converter.html

 


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
CarltonR
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

The only thing I would add was that the time I tried, admittedly some time ago, to perform a P2V using the Standalone Converter on a Win XP Pro physical box, it failed to do so.  I was able to install it, but it failed to complete, error massage, et al.  Now, it might have been down to the setup.  Ended up having to create a new VM, fortunately I had the necessary software and licencing keys.

 

However, if you read the 'VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 6.2.0.1 Release Notes' Win XP is not on the lists.

 

Post Note: Can't quite remember the exact Converter version I used, possibly 6.0.0 or 6.1.0.

ginahoy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Thanks for the prompt replies! I found a page on the VMware site with docs and program downloads for previous versions. The release notes for Converter 6.1 and 6.0 make multiple references to XP but strangely, XP isn't included in the list of supported guest operation systems. Converter 5.x supports XP Professional, but unfortunately, my legacy machine runs XP Home so I guess I'm out of luck 😥

Or maybe not... The oldest version listed on the docs page, Converter 3.0.3, supports conversion from Acronis True Image 9.0 files, which is what I use to backup my XP partition. However, as I understand it, Converter must be installed on a compatible Windows machine. I have a Windows 10 laptop. Do you think it's possible to install such an old version of Converter on Windows 10?

There's another potential issue that could make XP compatibility moot: The user guide for Converter 6.2 includes the following limitation:

Converter Standalone preserves the firmware interface during the conversion. You cannot convert BIOS sources to UEFI destinations and the reverse.

My XP machine (source) has BIOS firmware whereas my Linux machine (destination) has UEFI. Not surprisingly, the user guide for Converter 3 makes no mention of this limitation, presumably because UEFI wasn't a thing when v3 was released in 2008. Is this a deal killer for my situation?

Reply
0 Kudos
RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership
Jump to solution

Don't worry about the UEFI that your host computer/OS uses.  That warning is referring to the virtual hard drive/image.

Reply
0 Kudos
CarltonR
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

I would suggest that you just give the various options a try . . . clearly, when you do so you have to make sure that there is adequate storage for the image.

 

Clearly there are two Converter options available for creating an image of your Win XP machine, either via a local install of the client server installation.  I have previously used the standalone install, and as mentioned ran into a issue with a Win XP (but rather then investigate the whys and wherefores, it was quicker just to recreate it in a VM), but I have successfully imaged Win 2003 servers as part of an AD migration to Win 2016 Server environment.  I mention this as Win 2003 is the same generation of operating system as XP.

 

With regards the BIOS vs. UEFI its not actually relevant as 'XP has never supported UEFI', but you just need to set the VM setting in the Firmware type to use BIOS [sorry I'm used to Workstation Pro rather then Player, so it may be slightly different.]

CarltonR
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

Post Note: I have installed and run vCenter Converter v6.1.1 standalone on a [Workstation Pro] Win XP VM, once the Converter completed its task, transferred the created directory (.vmdk, .vmx files) across to the relevant area on the Workstation Pro host, and then 'opened' these in Workstation Pro, all completed and checked out successfully.

There is one thing that you will have to be aware of, is that the Win XP Activation key will have to be re-entered, else you only get three day grace.  This is not uncommon for Microsoft Windows operating systems.

ginahoy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution


@RDPetruska wrote:

Don't worry about the UEFI that your host computer/OS uses.  That warning is referring to the virtual hard drive/image.


When I read that limitation, I took 'destination' to mean the host computer. I forgot that you have to create a virtual drive before installing an OS image. I have a steep learning curve ahead 😉

Reply
0 Kudos
ginahoy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

Unfortunately, the converter documents page I found with previous versions (https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/converter_pubs.html) always resolves to the current version when I select a previous version in the dropdown menu and click the download button.  So I need to figure out how to make this work using the current version.

As I said, I have a Windows 10 laptop. Is it possible to convert an OS partition when Converter is running on a different physical machine?  I don't have a way to physically connect the XP hard drive (SATA) to the laptop but I should be able to access the XP partition over the LAN. I say "should" because I've never been able to see the XP machine on the network from the Win10 machine. Until now, I've had no reason to chase that down but if that solves my VM conversion problem, I'll try to find someone who can help me with that.

Edited to clarify that my XP HDD is SATA, not IDE.

Reply
0 Kudos
CarltonR
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

You have to excuse me, I'm getting rather confused . . . so if I get this right, you have an Win XP machine connect to your network, which you wish to image and open in VMware Workstation Player, however you are unable to access the Win XP machine through the network from your Win 10 laptop.

As this is the case, then I would suggest that you install the vCentre Converter software on the physical Win XP machine and preform a 'standalone' image, no network required.  Unless you have reason not to install anything additional onto the Win XP machine.  I would however suggest that you evaluate/experiment on a 'dummy' machine (or in a VM) before moving to the 'live' one.

Note: As I said previously, assuming everything goes as planned, you will need a Win XP Activation key once you bring it into Workstation Player.  Also, any installed applications which are are licensed to the 'hardware' may also need reactivation.

 

So, instructions . . .

  • Connect an external removable storage device with appropriate free storage capacity to the Win XP.
  • Install the vCentre Converter software (use the latest version to start with) onto the Win XP machine.
  • Run the vCentre Converter application.

Source System: select 'Powered on' and 'This Local Machine' press Next
Destination System:

Select destination type: select 'VMware Workstation or other VMware virtual' from the pulldown list

Select Product: select 'VMware Player 7.x/12x' from the pulldown list

Virtual Machine Details

Name: enter name for the image, give it a proper name

Select a location: browse to your external physical storage device

Press Next

Options: on the 'Data to copy' listing select 'Edit' and deselect your external removable storage device from the list, if present.  Review the other settings, but would suggest leaving as is, for the first run.

Press Next

Summary: review, and if acceptable, press 'Next'

  • The imaging will then commence

if there are any error then review, diagnose and correct.

  • If all is correct and present, move the external physical storage device to your Workstation Player machine, move the image files to a folder, using Workstation Player open the image as a VM.
ginahoy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution


@CarltonR wrote:

You have to excuse me, I'm getting rather confused . . . so if I get this right, you have an Win XP machine connect to your network, which you wish to image and open in VMware Workstation Player, however you are unable to access the Win XP machine through the network from your Win 10 laptop.

As this is the case, then I would suggest that you install the Converter on the physical Win XP machine and preform a 'standalone' image...


That is correct. Sorry, I thought that was clear (I probably confused you by using incorrect jargon to describe my situation). The Player will be installed on my Linux machine. 

The issue I'm trying to address is that I'm only able to find a download link for the current version of Converter, and according to the docs, 6.2 is not compatible with XP.  Version 5.x and earlier were compatible with XP Pro, but not XP Home, which is what I have.

To my surprise, I just tried and was able to install and run Converter 6.2 on my XP Home machine. However, the conversion failed at 1%: FAILED: An error occurred during the conversion: 'converter.fault.ConverterFileFault' That error msg isn't helpful so I'm attaching the log files. Can you tell if the problem is XP compatibility, or (hopefully) an issue that I can resolve?

BTW, I still have the original disk with activation key so XP activation in the VM won't be an issue.

Reply
0 Kudos
CarltonR
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

I'm sure that you will have seen from your log files that the primary issue is one of 'permissions' . . . in the form of the rather infamous "Module: xxxxx.dll, The file is missing or unable to read it due to permissions".

 

There are a various suggestions, both on this forum and the wider Internet as to possible solutions, although with varying outcomes and success, which I would suggest that you review.  Another possibility is that the files may be being 'locked' by a process or service, so might also be worth also checking what you have running on the machine. 

 

As an aside, I dug out one of my old PCs, which has a removable drive caddy, and tested the Converter software on a number of instances of Win XP Pro (this was the only version I had at hand), and it worked without any issues.

ginahoy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast
Jump to solution

After chasing down a bunch of dead ends related to permissions, etc., I stumbled across a discussion that talks about how the permissions issue may related to the destination media (as opposed to XP dll permissions). So I switched from a USB drive to a high capacity thumbdrive as my destination media (referred to as "location for the virtual machine" on the Destination System tab in the GUI). Converter still fails at 1%, but the GUI error changed to:

FAILED: Unable to create a VSS snapshot of the source volume(s). Error code: 2147754758 (0x80042306)

I chased this error down and discovered a VSS error in the XP Events Viewer (Event ID 4001). I had no idea what Volume Shadow Copy Service was, but the error essentially says VSS is unable to find suitable "diff areas" for created a shadow copy. Further research reveals that VSS requires the media to be NTFS formatted. I took care of that but got the same error. Further research revealed that VSS doesn't like removable drives. Ouch!  So I dug out and installed an old HDD, created a sufficiently large NTFS partition and boom! Converter successfully completed the conversion!

I'm currently copying the VM files to the USB drive so I can transfer it to my Linux SSD. And then I need to install Workstation. I imagine I'll be back with more questions (I'll start another thread). 

I really appreciate your engaging me in this discussion. 

BTW, I'm sure I read elsewhere in this forum that Converter can write to removable media. Maybe that works with later versions of Windows? In any case, I've now learned that Converter running on XP relies on VSS, which apparently does not like removable media!

 

Reply
0 Kudos
CarltonR
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
Jump to solution

Well done . . . that's good news.

Reply
0 Kudos