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TheNostalgiaMas
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Windows XP Virtual Disk problems

I've used disk2vhd to copy the contents of my old Acer Laptop's hard drive, with Windows XP SP3 installed, to my MSI computer in order to run it as a virtual machine. However, whenever I boot it up, whether it be in VirtualBox or VMWare, I get this error:

Windows VHD trouble.PNG

I've done this with another computer with Windows XP SP2 and that one ran well. This buggy virtual drive is a .vhd file. I have opened the contents of this hard drive myself, and compared the system file with that of the working Windows hard drive, so I can only assume that Windows is having trouble accessing the system file in the first place.

What do I do?

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RDPetruska
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Use the free VMware Converter instead - this will not only create the image of the hard disk as a virtual disk, but also inject the required drivers for the virtual machine to boot and access the disk.

View solution in original post

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RDPetruska
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Use the free VMware Converter instead - this will not only create the image of the hard disk as a virtual disk, but also inject the required drivers for the virtual machine to boot and access the disk.

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TheNostalgiaMas
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Hm, okay, I'll try that. But it's gonna take a while because my Acer is slow, struggles to boot up with USBs/external hard drives plugged in and yeah...

I'll get back to you with the results.

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TheNostalgiaMas
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I've downloaded VMware vCenter Converter onto an external hard drive, opened it on my acer, and now it wants me to access a remote Converter server!?

I've logged into localhost with my username and password and now it gives me an error saying it can't connect. What now? How am I even supposed to use this?

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Windows XP is not supported on the version of vCenter Converter that I got, so I'm gonna need an older version...

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scott28tt
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This should help: About VMware vCenter Converter Standalone User Guide

There are sections about installation, how to convert a physical machine, and other configuration.

Although 6.2 doesn't officially support XP, it should still work.


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TheNostalgiaMas
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Okay so I managed to convert my Acer. Turns out that it's best to install the Converter ON THE COMPUTER instead of on an external hard drive.

Now I shall wait for the conversion to complete and transfer the VM files to VMware and go from there.

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TheNostalgiaMas
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It worked! I simpy had to transfer the files from my external hard drive to my gaming laptop, activate Windows over the Internet and everything is fine. I didn't even need to put in a product key!!!

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