Can't convert Win2k to VM

[time]

Trying to convert an ancient Win2k system to VMWare VM (workstation). The VMWare 5.5.3 Converter tool says:

"Fatal error occurred. The most common reason for this is loss of network connection."

I've tried specifying the target as both a local USB drive and a shared drive on another PC, to no avail. I also attempted to connect to the source remotely, but it says:

"Unable to complete Converter agent installation ... Error code 1,603"

I've also tried an ancient version of Paragon Virtualization Manager (like the VMWare converter, the current version won't even run on Win2k), but still no go.

Any ideas, VM fans?

 

[Mercutio]

Does it have to be a live conversion? You could try imaging the disk to a VHD or TIB and building the VM from that.

 

[time]

Microsoft's VHD imaging tool relies on Shadow Copy so isn't supported until XP.

The last version of Acronis TrueImage that supports Win2k is 11 (Home). I don't have it and there are no download links on their website. Because the last version of VMWare Converter that supports Win2k is 4.01, I don't think it supports the TDI format anyway. And the price of the latest version is just ridiculous (but I'd pay up if I could find some evidence that it would actually work).

This is ridiculous; I'm just amazed that it's so hard. VMWare support documentation is truly woeful and VirtualBox is even worse. To make matters worse, the source PC only has 100Mbps networking and USB 2.0.

 

[time]

Double post.

 

[ddrueding]

I had this issue a few years ago, and I'm struggling to remember how I did it. I can tell you it worked, because the vm is still live. Pretty sure it involved an older version of converter, possibly a copy of the drive connected as a secondary on another box.

 

[Mercutio]

I have TrueImage 11 and can make you an ISO, but if you can take the machine offline for any length of time you should be able to make a .TIB that can be read and converted to a VHD or VMDK.

 

[time]

This has proven to be an odyssey - complete with one-eyed giants. Here's the story with the benefit of hindsight:

Thanks to SDBardwick for the (trial) copy of TrueImage 11. Unfortunately,the original Win2k installation is split over 2 partitions (eg Program Files is on D drive). It took many near-24 hour runs to prove, but there is something wrong with the 350GB D partition that TrueImage just can't handle. Unfortunately, it also doesn't throw any kind of error; the first I knew about it was repeated failures when trying to do the VM conversion. To be fair, Checkdsk/Scandisk fails to complete on this volume as well. But then Paragon was able to copy it (much faster) without any dramas, with the result passing Chkdsk.

In the end, I settled for the converted C drive and attached the D drive as a physical disk to the VM. VMWare Converter can't open the resulting C drive VM, so I can't shrink it or do anything to it really.

All this is running off a portable 1TB drive, so I'm anxious to migrate it to something a little more dependable. So I bought a 4TB HGST drive. One small problem: the compatible version of VMPlayer I'm using can only see the protective 2TB MBS partition rather than any GPT partitions (took a while to realize this). I'm guessing that the VM itself will also choke because I'm stuck with a physical D drive (VMConverter has *no* options to convert a partition rather than a backup). So I'd need to purchase another sub 2TB drive just so I can run the other half of the VM, which I am unable to virtualize.

This entire process has been soul destroying. I really, really don't have any confidence in VMWare products and am now not too impressed with Acronis either (it was taking 18 hours to perform each corrupt backup). I'm really not sure what my next step should be.

 

[Howell]

Does any other tool have a problem with the D partition?

 

[time]

No, just Acronis. But it's the only one that VMWare Converter can use.

I fixed the (minor) error on the paritition and went through the backup ordeal again, but the Converter failed again. After exporting the logs, I see that it is reporting a "bad block". I scanned the portable drive, but it is fine. So I'm now attempting a backup of a backup partition that I created a couple of days ago (NOT with Acronis FalseImage) while I was trying to figure out what to do next.

A complication is that the Acronis 15 day trial has expired, so I'm now running it from a dual-booted copy of Windows XP. Google suggests that TrueImage 11 Home was a POS and my problem is all too common. But I don't appear to have any alternatives.

 

[Howell]

I'm meant with chkdsk but it sounds like you've been there now.

Hard to to if you've tried this but what about a traditional backup of the d drive (windows backup? ) that could be restored once the basic machine is up in vm?

 

[Howell]

What service pack is the physical machine?

 

[time]

SP3.

I tried restoring to the VM (after adding the drive manually) but I think it was so slow I thought it had crashed. The main problem though was that I couldn't configure the VM itself and shrink the drives. I will try a new conversion of just C drive and start with that. Paragon works just fine; that's how I got as far as I have. They also have an alternative to VMConverter, but unfortunately it no longer supports Win2K.

Right now I'm verifying the latest Acronis backup, run against a duplicated partition rather than the original D drive. Have to wait a few hours for that to complete/fail before I can try anything new.