ERROR: There is not enough space on the disk

[Legor]

Hi There,

Sorry if there is already a lot of similar topics but I didn't find a solution to my problem sofar.

I'm trying to convert a Windows XP Professional machine into an ESX Server 3.0.1 virtual machine using VMware Converter 3.0.1 in "starter mode". Everytime I do that I get the following error :

"ERROR: There is not enough space on the disk"

The computer has one physical drive with 4 partitions :

\- ? : FAT (39MB with 33MB free space)

\- C : NTFS (14.06GB with 4.74GB free space)

\- F : NTFS (39.06GB with 23.17GB free space)

\- G : FAT32 (58.59GB with 25.54GB free space)

The error comes up when the process is dealing with drive F:.

Does anybody have any idea or suggestion ?

Thanks for appreciated help

[theanykey]

Do not select the 39mb partition for conversion - this is your utility/diagnostics partition which is not needed in a VM

Also, be sure to use the local admin against the physical box.

[Legor]

Thanks for your help theanykey, it's better now :smileyhappy:

However the conversion process still fails when "Formatting target volume g:" with the following error :

ERROR: Unknow error returned by VMware Converter Agent

Do you have any idea ? Should I post a particular extract from the logs that could help to understand ? I found "Image processing task has failed with MethodFault::Exception: sysimage.fault.ImageProcessingTaskFault" in the VMware converter agent logs for example.

[theanykey]

What does diskmanager detail that drive as? is there any software mirrors in play?

[Legor]

All drives are on the same physical disk. F: and G: belong to an extended partition. There is no RAID. What do you mean by "software mirror" ? Is there any other information you need ? Do you think FAT32 could be the issue ?

[theanykey]

Is there anything going on specifically with this partition? Do you have any software that could be locking files like a file server? Does your vmware-converter-#.log signify any skipped files?

Are you resizing the disks in the conversion? If so, what happens if you dont?

Are you trying to convert the pagefile? If so, try without doing so.

as a workaround, if it is simply data on this partition, you could try converting the other partitions, make a new virtual harddisk on the newly created/converted VM, file copy from the physical to the VM's new virtual hard disk.

[Legor]

Well eventually i've converted the G: FAT32 to NTFS and it looks better :). In order to save time i tried converting only G: and got further than previously.

However i still get the same error which appears now later, at Step 3, when VMware Converter is preparing target virtual machine after 97% progress :

ERROR: Unknow error returned by VMware Converter Agent

There is nothing going specifically on this partition, no file server. vmware-converter-#.log shows some pagefile.sys is skipped.

I have the option "Ignore page file and hibernation file" checked.

Unfortunately the workaround wouldn't work here as i'm already trying to convert only one partition.

Any idea ?

[theanykey]

can you post the "vmware-converter" log for this task below?

[Legor]

I tried the conversion process again and this time that worked fine :). That's strange but it's ok now. Thank you theanykey.

[bobst_martin]

what a pity, I was waiting for a real solution ...

I have the same problem too.

I already converte a PC to VM in order to make some tests.

know I try to converte again the same PC and It failed at 2%

simple PC running Windows 2000 Workstation on an 8GB IDE disk.

converter is running on a VM windows server 2003

I'm converting "Physical" to "Virtual Center"

it have 2 partitions, the Compaq BIOS partition, and the system partition

I've tried to convert 2 partitions together, and only system partition

with or without the pagesize

I have enought space available on PC (68% free) and on VMFS (100GB free)

it have worked once before \!!! why not twice ???

it seemst be free disk space problem , log :

11:45:41 AM Step 1 : Connecting to VMware Converter Agent on martmeca

11:45:41 AM Step 2 : Creating target virtual machine and importing data

11:45:50 AM Configuring parameters for the target virtual machine...

11:45:55 AM WARNING: Dropping the sound device

11:45:55 AM Creating target virtual machine...

11:46:14 AM Taking a snapshot of the volume...

11:46:20 AM ERROR: Failed to take snapshot of a source volume.

Possible causes include not having any NTFS volumes on Windows XP or Windows 2003 source systems,

and not having enough free disk space.

any idea ?

[theanykey]

Does your machine have a diagnostics/utility partition? - dont convert this

[bobst_martin]

I'm speaking about "Compaq Bios Partition" if you prefered to call it "Diagnostics/utility partition"...

so as I said before, I've tried both

diag + system

and

system only

...

so , that's not coming from that partition.

[theanykey]

Sorry I failed to note that you DO have the hidden partition - this is 99% of the time best to unselect for conversion (do not convert)

Make sure you install converter 3.0.1 directly to the physical as the LOCAL admin (not a domain admin or a member of the admin group)

after you have installed - it is imperative that you restart a windows 2000 box

run the conversion as the LOCAL admin - select "this local machine" when radio-button prompted

if it fails again, post the newest vmware-converter.log file below

[bobst_martin]

don't worry, I was may be not clear , English is not my natural linguage.

I do have the lastest converter.

I have discovered yor other post in which you describe to use LOCAL admin, but it doesn't change my trouble. (I was obliged to logoff-logon on the Converter server, cache credentiel didn't allow me to change account "dynamicaly") but It still doesn't work.

Of Course I have rebooted it, remember it have worked once \!!!

I haven't try yet to install converter to the physical LOCAL PC, it will be next step for me.

looking for a solution, I've found a "workaround" :

I've made a ghost of this PC

create a new disk #2 on my VM server converter

then I put down my ghost on this disk #2

reboot

I run converter with a LOCAL DISK, select my disk #2, converted it.

power off my VM server converter.

removed the disk from that VM

create a new VM using an existing disk, my disk #2

now my PC have been converted to VM, using a complicated way...

I will advise you next time I run it from Physical with LOCAL ADMIN.

[theanykey]

This is deffinately a viable workaround for anything other then "cant determine guest os" - unfortunately this is as you said - very lengthly process

[admin]

Hello bobst.martin

I would recommend that you start a new thread for this subject, as you are not experiencing the same error as the original poster of this thread.

Original posters error: "ERROR: There is not enough space on the disk"

Your error: "ERROR: Failed to take snapshot of a source volume"

Some things to try to help in resolving this issue:

\- Install and run converter locally on the source machine using the local "Administrator" account

\- Select the ESX server VMFS data store by IP

\- Only convert the OS partition

\- Install VMware tools after the conversion

If you are still experiencing issues after attempting these modifications, converting to a standalone VMware server format on local storage ( additional HDD or USB HDD ) could enable the conversion process to complete. The resulting files could then be copied over to the ESX server and imported.