Trouble creating Win7 VM on new PC without ISO

[JMorgenthaler]

I just purchased a new computer that came with Win7 Home Premium and also just purchased VMWorkstation 7. I wanted to create a "clone" of Win7 but the pc mfg (HP) did not provide the OEM discs of Win7. Instead they installed a "recovery partition" on the system so that if something happened, Win7 could be restored from the recovery partition.

What I've tried to do is I first created an Acronis backup of the system (using Acronis workstation 9.5). Then went into vmware and selected the import option and selected the acronis .tib file. The wizard shows 3 partitions to select, an "active partition", the "C drive" partition and the "D drive" partition (which is the HP/Win7 recovery partition). I've tried selecting every different combination of these partitions (all 3, just 1&2, 2&3, etc, etc). But in every instance, after vmware creates the vm and I try to power up the vm, I get a Windows Boot Manager error stating that something has changed in the software or hardware and that a required device is missing.

So is there a trick to creating a vm using an Acronis tib file? Or does anyone have any suggestions on how to create a vm of my current win7 drive without having the CD/iso of the original win7 discs? I'm at my wits end on what to try next.

TIA

Jim

PS: I also tried the same thing using the stand-alone vmconverter software (trying to convert the acronis file that way). But I get the same Windows Boot Manager error message.

[asatoran]

No real tricks to using Acronis or Ghost to create a VM. You'll want to use whatever "restore anywhere" feature there is with the imaging sofware, so that it can inject the appropriate SATA//SCSI/IDE drivers for the new hardware. VMWare Converter does this. For an existing VM, you select modify instead of convert.

However, branded OEM versions of Windows like the one you're using are tied to the hardware from the specific manufacturer. So even if you do get past the crashing, you'll likely have to get past reactivation. If you're going to run the VM on the same hardware, there were some posts that mention some lines you add the the VMX config file that allow some of the BIOS info to pass through to the VM. (I don't have the links to the posts handy. ) But obviously, if you move the VM to some other brand of physical hardware, then your VM would see the new hardware and would want reactivation again.

FWIW, the VMX config lines didn't work for my HP dc7800 with HP OEM Vista and another with HP OEM XP, although it's likely that I messed up something. YMMV.

[grossag]

Not sure I'm understanding your use case, but one idea would be just using VMware Converter on your Win7 computer to do a P2V conversion.

[JMorgenthaler]

My thought was since this is a brand new, virgin computer to create a vm that doesn't have anything installed on it yet. Then use the VM for my regular day-to-day work and leave the host in a new/virgin state without crapping it up with a bunch of installed software, etc.

I tried to use the vmconverter but it stopped after about 30 seconds with error messages stating something about volume shadow services. I don't really know what that means and couldn't find anything in the documentation/help about it. That's why I decided to try the Acronis route.

Last night I tried creating a new vm using the "i'll install o/s later" option. Then put the acronis workstation cd in and started the vm. This loaded up acronis and then I tried to restore the system from my original acronis backup .tib file. All went well until it came time to start the vm...and once again I get back to the Windows Boot Manager with an error saying that a required device is missing. Back to square one. I'm beginning to think that maybe there's something wrong w/ my acronis backup file.

Of course all of this would be so much simpler if HP would have just supplied the Win7 OEM install discs w/ the new computer instead of just a "recovery" disc partition. Oh well, it is what it is.

I'll try running the vmconverter again and get a more detail on what the error message is and post the info and see if anyone has any ideas on it.

[asatoran · Accepted solution]

...and once again I get back to the Windows Boot Manager with an error saying that a required device is missing....

After creating the VM and restoring the Acronis image, before starting the VM, run Converter and choose "Configure Machine". This is to inject the missing drivers into the VM. I don't think Windows7 is supported, but I haven't tried Converter on Win7 yet. Hopefully Win7 is close enough for Converter to deal with it.

Otherwise, you need to use whatever "restore anywhere" feature there is in Acronis when you restore. ("Restore Anywhere" is what the feature is called In Symantec Backup Exec System Restore http://a.k.a. Ghost. I do not know what it is called in Acronis' products.) "Restore anywhere" is designed to restore the image to a different motherboard or drive controller, which is exactly what you're doing and the likely reason for the error message.

...Of course all of this would be so much simpler if HP would have just supplied the Win7 OEM install discs w/ the new computer instead of just a "recovery" disc partition....

Even if HP gave you recovery disks (or you order them from HP,) it is likely that the disks would be "factory restore" disks, which would basically use something like Acronis to restore an image of the HD, just like the recovery partition. Or the disks would be tied to a specific HP model and won't run in the virtual machine. (My HP restore disks work that way. They cannot be run in a VM and you'd need to do some complex manual extracting to be able to use the Windows on the restore disks.) So HP disks would likely not help you much anyway.

[continuum]

make sure you also restore the MBR with Acronis - otherwise your disksignature will be off and you must recreate the BCD-store in the Windows-VM




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