Vstor2 Driver failed to start

[bushmaster2000]

We had a consultant install ESX 3.5 / VC 2.5 for us and he setup a few VMs. All the VMs he setup have an error message on boot up that says a service failed to start.

Looking at the event logs i see an entry event ID 7000 and the text says The Vstor2 Converter Virtual Storage Driver service failed to start due to the following error : The system cannot find the file specified.

I have checked through the services list and I can't find anything related to Vstor, the only VMWare stuff installed on this VM are the tools. What do i need to do in order to get this error to stop? I don't see anything I can uninstall and i don't see a service that's the obvious cause, there are no services listed as automatic that aren't started.

[weinstein5]

What o/s are you running in the VM? How did you consultant create these vma? It sounds like they had used converter and converter did not complete cleaning up the vms removing the various drivers it uses to convert a physical machine - does the vm ultimately start?

[bushmaster2000]

Windows 2003 Enterprise Server .

I don't know how the original VM was made, but all these VMs seen to be clones of the VM that runs Virtual Center, SQL and License Server. I know this because the other two VMs also have all the same stuff (SQL server, Virtual Center server and License Server all installed). So i've been trying to make a clean template and uninstalled all that stuff but this is the last piece that all the clones have in common is this Vstore startup problem.

The VMs all start fine and seem to operate without any problems at all except the initial pop up about a service not starting.

I had the same thought that a conversion was done and it wasn't cleaned up properly since Vstore seems to be converter related from the support docs i've read. I haven't been able to find a doc on how to manually remove converter files and such though.

[kjb007]

Do you get a class name in your error?

What you can also do is search the registry for the name that comes up in your error, and see if the display name of that service is something different in the services manager.

-KjB

[weinstein5]

It sounds like your consultant messed up on creating your image probably using vmware converter - and when they cloned it the issue propogated - as long as the vms are working I think you can remove that service -

[bushmaster2000]

I did a search through the registry for Vstor2 and found a ton of hits. I can't delete this stuff though because i get an error when trying to delete it like those keys are locked by something.

So the question is, if the Converter leaves droppings in your registry and there is no apparent uninstall option in add/remove programs, how do you uninstall this stuff?

[kjb007]

Sorry, I didn't mean to delete anything, yet. If you find a hit on vstor2 in the registry, check to see if that key has a displayname for a service that is not vstor2. Then, it may be as simple as going to stop that service. Also, try to re-install vmware tools.

-KjB

[ThommiM]

Hi everyone,

I have the same problem. I know how to fix this however when I did the VirtualCenter service fails so I would wait till I figure it out with support.

What release of 2.5 are you on. I am on Update 2.

I have a ticket number opened and am working it now.

Here is the problem.

Imagepath under the services for these drives has this path.

\??\C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Converter Enterprise\vstor2-converter.sys

Should be.

C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Converter Enterprise\vstor2-converter.sys

Again I recommend againt the change till support and I figure it out.

Cheers,

ThommiM

[scerazy]

And remember the name of this "consultant", so you NEVER use him again

Seb

[Andreas_Kirchne]

There is a known problem that not all files are correctly removed when removing converter enterprise.

Look here: http://www.vmware.com/support/converter/doc/releasenotes_conv3.html#gen