topic error trying to open converted windows machine on fusion in VMware Fusion Discussions

error trying to open converted windows machine on fusion

lauriemann — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 09:48:45 GMT

I am running Fusion Pro 13.5 on an Intel MacBook Pro with Ventura 13.6.1. I downloaded the latest vCenter Converter Standalone onto an old Windows 7 machine, and ran it to convert the machine to a vm I could transfer to the Mac (selecting Fusion 13 as the target). The conversion completed successfully on the Windows machine, writing the image to an external usb hard drive. I dismounted the drive on Windows machine and moved it to the MacBook, where the generated folder containing the ".vmdk" and ".vmx" files showed up, and then scanned the drive in Fusion to let it find the VM. Fusion correctly found the VM, and inserted the name into the list of VM's in Fusion. However, when I try to start it, a fusion window pops up that simply says "Error" (see attached png). No additional information. How can I debug this?

Re: error trying to open converted windows machine on fusion

Technogeezer — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 13:41:13 GMT

Take a look at the vmware.log file found in the VM’s bundle folder (post a copy here so we may take a look at it too).

Re: error trying to open converted windows machine on fusion

ColoradoMarmot — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 19:35:39 GMT

Fusion really wants VM's to live on APFS formatted drives these days. exFAT can work, but it's not stable. What's the format of the external drive?

FWIW, converted VM's are always bloated and buggy. If you can build a clean one from scratch, you'll be better off in the long run.

Re: error trying to open converted windows machine on fusion

lauriemann — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:41:09 GMT

Sadly Fusion does not seem to have created a log file for this VM (unlike all of my other VM's on this machine, which have log files as one would expect). Is there any way to force some sort of verbose mode to have it produce some indication of what the problem is?

Re: error trying to open converted windows machine on fusion

Technogeezer — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:50:55 GMT

Can you post the vmx file? Maybe we can get an idea of what’s wrong by having a look at it.

Have you tried creating a new virtual machine and instead of letting the process create a new virtual disk electing to use an existing one?

Re: error trying to open converted windows machine on fusion

lauriemann — Sat, 04 Nov 2023 12:51:56 GMT

Re creating a new vm, I have many other vm's on this machine, and regularly create, run, and delete them with no issues, its just this one which is from an actual physical machine I'm trying to retire that won't start.

Here is the offending vmx file:

.encoding = "UTF-8"
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "20"
memsize = "3624"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
displayName = "icel"
guestOS = "windows7-64"
numvcpus = "4"
cpuid.coresPerSocket = "4"
firmware = "bios"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.filename = "-1"
sound.autodetect = "TRUE"
usb.present = "TRUE"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.startConnected = "TRUE"
scsi0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0.virtualDev = "lsisas1068"
scsi0:0.present = "TRUE"
scsi0:0.fileName = "icel.vmdk"
sata0.present = "TRUE"
sata0.virtualDev = "ahci"
sata0:0.present = "TRUE"
sata0:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
sata0:0.filename = "auto detect"
sata0:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
mks.enable3d = "TRUE"
vmci0.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
tools.upgrade.policy = "upgradeAtPowerCycle"
pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge4.functions = "8"
pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge5.functions = "8"
pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge6.functions = "8"
pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge7.functions = "8"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
tools.syncTime = "TRUE"
powerType.powerOff = "soft"
powerType.powerOn = "soft"
powerType.suspend = "soft"
powerType.reset = "soft"
serial0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.fileType = "thinprint"
printers.enabled = "TRUE"
hpet0.present = "TRUE"

Re: error trying to open converted windows machine on fusion

Technogeezer — Sat, 04 Nov 2023 15:46:19 GMT

Could you please zip up the file and post it - it is more useful if it can be seen in its raw format rather than a listing of the contents in this case.