Unable to convert physical XP machine

[JeffN1]

I am trying to convert a machine running Windows XP (SP2) using the starter version. It has only 1 drive with two volumes. I am converting both volumes. The target machine is running XP (SP2) also. I am using Converter version 3.0.2 build-59994. I have updated both the source and target machines with Microsoft Update so everything on both machines is up-to-date. After about 40 minutes the process generates an error. Here is part of the of the vmware-converter-2.log that shows the first instance of an error. I have attached the full log file to this message. I also have bolded any entries below that say Error.

Creating local connection to the co-located slave

DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Opened : "VisualVoiceXP-flat.vmdk" 0 (0xa)

DISKLIB-LINK : Opened '
Jtn-home\VisualVoiceXP\VisualVoiceXP\VisualVoiceXP.vmdk' (0xa): monolithicFlat, 26187998 sectors / 12788 Mb.

DISKLIB-LIB : Opened "
Jtn-home\VisualVoiceXP\VisualVoiceXP\VisualVoiceXP.vmdk" (flags 0xa). 02641078

Registering disposable session object id=computer= Associating disposable session object id=computer= with session id=26667425-D0D3-4C82-9C7A-D9E3C6C7F22F

Successfully connected to UfaSysReconfig

Windows Directory in the local machine: C:\WINDOWS

Processing computer...

SysReconfigImpl::ProcessComputer...

Successfully connected to local UfaClient.

Opening specifed computer ...

Creating local connection to the co-located slave

Successfully connected to remote Computer.

Registering disposable session object id=UfaSysReconfig::task::task Associating disposable session object id=UfaSysReconfig::task::task with session id=26667425-D0D3-4C82-9C7A-D9E3C6C7F22F Scheduling SysReconfigTask for execution... Successfully connected to UfaSysReconfig::task::task

Start managed object method for task UfaSysReconfig::task::task VmiReconfigTask::task step "Reconfigure VM" in progress... Waiting for completion of task UfaSysReconfig::task::task Waiting for updates from UfaSysReconfig::task::task

(Re)Start waiting for property updates from UfaSysReconfig::task::task UfaSysReconfig::task::task: Starting execution of an image processing task UfaSysReconfig::task::task: SetState to running

Starting system reconfiguration ...

Got an update from UfaSysReconfig::task::task VmiReconfigTask::task step "Reconfigure VM" 0% completed Waiting for updates from UfaSysReconfig::task::task (Re)Start waiting for property updates from UfaSysReconfig::task::task

Got an update from UfaSysReconfig::task::task Waiting for updates from UfaSysReconfig::task::task (Re)Start waiting for property updates from UfaSysReconfig::task::task

Using temp dir C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\vmware-temp\vmware-SYSTEM\sysReconfig

Debug

Retrieving the system volume info ...

2 volumes found

Volume: idx=0 sysId=7 active=Y

Volume: idx=1 sysId=7 active=N

1 potential active volumes found

Populating OS from volume virtVol={computer={501969a2a8463e6be23ff4859b8c80f9919e02a5},0}

DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Couldn't open descriptor file for writing.

Just about to open the BCD Hive...

Getting extended OS info by parsing boot.ini and/or analyzing the registry failed

Registering disposable session object id=localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000003000000\msdos.sys}

Associating disposable session object id=localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000003000000\msdos.sys} with session id=26667425-D0D3-4C82-9C7A-D9E3C6C7F22F

Error

object explicitly disposed: localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000003000000\msdos.sys}

msdos.sys is non-existent or inaccessible

FAILED parsing NTFS or Win9x_DOS partition*

Guessing which volume is system volume...

Populating OS from volume virtVol={computer={501969a2a8463e6be23ff4859b8c80f9919e02a5},0}

Just about to open the BCD Hive...

Getting extended OS info by parsing boot.ini and/or analyzing the registry failed

Registering disposable session object id=localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000003000000\msdos.sys}

Associating disposable session object id=localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000003000000\msdos.sys} with session id=26667425-D0D3-4C82-9C7A-D9E3C6C7F22F

Error

object explicitly disposed: localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000003000000\msdos.sys}

msdos.sys is non-existent or inaccessible

FAILED parsing NTFS or Win9x_DOS partition

Cleaning up temp directory C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\vmware-temp\vmware-SYSTEM\sysReconfig ...

* UfaSysReconfig::task::task: Image processing task has failed with MethodFault::Exception: sysimage.fault.OsVersionNotFound* UfaSysReconfig::task::task: SetState to error Remote task UfaSysReconfig::task::task completed

Got an update from UfaSysReconfig::task::task Cleaning up remote task UfaSysReconfig::task::task Disposing task wrapper for task UfaSysReconfig::task::task

object explicitly disposed: UfaSysReconfig::task::task Debug Debug Info UfaSysReconfig::task::task being destroyed VmiReconfigTask::task step "Reconfigure VM" failed Reporting image processing task failure for task UfaSysReconfig::task::task

ImageProcessingTask FAILED. Fault name: sysimage.fault.OsVersionNotFound

object explicitly disposed: computer= VmiReconfigTask::task step "Reconfigure VM" destroyed Reconfiguration failed * VmiReconfigTask::task: Image processing task has failed with MethodFault::Exception: sysimage.fault.ReconfigFault* VmiReconfigTask::task: SetState to error Cleaning up computer's child objects Unregistring volume id=virtVol={computer=,0}

object explicitly disposed: VmiReconfigTask::task VmiReconfigTask::task being destroyed

Unregistring volume id=virtVol={computer={501969a2a8463e6be23ff4859b8c80f9919e02a5},1}

Unregistring disk id=disk=

DISKLIB-DSCPTR: Couldn't open descriptor file for writing.

DISKLIB-LIB : Failed to close handle "02641078".

CloseSession called for session id=26667425-D0D3-4C82-9C7A-D9E3C6C7F22F

Removed vmdb connection /db/connection/#2/

Can anyone help? If any more infomation is required please let me know and I will provide it.

Thanks,

Jeff

[theanykey]

what happens if you convert JUST the C:\ and do not select the D:\ ?

can you attach a screenshot of diskmanagement?

[JeffN1]

Attached is a screenshot of Disk Managment reduced to 16 colors. The only way it would be of any use would be if the virtual machine the Converter created would allow me to create a new disk so I could copy the programs from my second disk onto it. That way the programs would be installed in the registry and in their proper locations. The whole purpose of this is to be able to carry the installed programs with me to the virtual machine without having to start from a fresh OS install.

Thanks,

Jeff

I tried to attach a bmp screenshot but it failed. Here is that file converted to jpg.

[asatoran]

Attached is a screenshot of Disk Managment reduced to 16 colors. The only way it would be of any use would be if the virtual machine the Converter created would allow me to create a new disk so I could copy the programs from my second disk onto it. That way the programs would be installed in the registry and in their proper locations. The whole purpose of this is to be able to carry the installed programs with me to the virtual machine without having to start from a fresh OS install.

Converter doesn't do that, but you just manually add a new virtual HD to your VM after conversion. You can then just copy the data over in whatever way you want. For example, I either use an imaging program (Symantec Livestate) to image the data drive, then restore that image into the new blank virtual disk. Or mount the virtual disk on my workstation or in another virtual machine, then I can copy over the network.

[JeffN1]

That is what I would like to do but am unsure how it is done. I guess there are two important settings in the Converter program. The first is whether or not to Maintain the original size of the source volume or to increase/reduce it. The second is whether to preallocate the disk space ahead of time. Once the virtual machine is created I a sorry to say that I don't know how to add a new disk. In the past I have taken a new virtual machine in a fresh OS install and used the OS install disk to create a partition smaller than the virtual disk size. Then once the operating system is installed I can use Disk Manager to use the remaining hard drive space as I wish. But if Converter creates a machine with only one drive and it takes up all the virtual disk space, how do I add another drive?

It would be so much easier if the Converter program just worked.

Once I get this knowledge I will see if Converter will successfully do Drive C only. If so then I will add the new drive and copy the installed programs on to it. If Converter fails to do Drive C alone then I am right back where I started, hoping to find someone that is familiar enough with the Converter program logs and that the log will contain the information required by such a person to solve the problem.

Thanks for your assistance.

[asatoran]

You don't create the new drive in Converter. After Converter creates the VM, You open the VM in whatever product you're using (WS, Server, ESX) then edit the VM settings and add a new HD. (If you're using Player, you'll have to manually edit the VMX file.) Except for Player, adding an additional virtual HD is a no brainer.

So go ahead and try converting on the C: partition as suggested, just to see if it resolves the current issue. For your other questions, it's quicker if you do not change the size of the volume. And you don't have to preallocate. Preallocating the disk is supposed to be faster for the VM (not for the conversion) but you probably won't notice the difference. So for now, I wouldn't preallocate.

[JeffN1]

I now see you can add a hard dirve to an exisitng machine easily. Workstation is more flexible than I thought and seems to quite a good product. Converter on the other hand seems like it is in Alpha release. I tried to import just the one drive but it failed. Here is the end of the log file -

Using temp dir C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\vmware-temp\vmware-SYSTEM\sysReconfig

Debug

Retrieving the system volume info ...

1 volumes found

Volume: idx=0 sysId=7 active=Y

1 potential active volumes found

Populating OS from volume virtVol={computer={e57f412a57c3f9766e5be56058d8167ba493e972},0}

Just about to open the BCD Hive...

Getting extended OS info by parsing boot.ini and/or analyzing the registry failed

Registering disposable session object id=localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000002000000\msdos.sys}

Associating disposable session object id=localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000002000000\msdos.sys} with session id=CA46754B-5FF8-49BF-96ED-F3DB0052EDF0

Error

object explicitly disposed: localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000002000000\msdos.sys}

msdos.sys is non-existent or inaccessible

FAILED parsing NTFS or Win9x_DOS partition

Guessing which volume is system volume...

Populating OS from volume virtVol={computer={e57f412a57c3f9766e5be56058d8167ba493e972},0}

Just about to open the BCD Hive...

Getting extended OS info by parsing boot.ini and/or analyzing the registry failed

Registering disposable session object id=localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000002000000\msdos.sys}

Associating disposable session object id=localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000002000000\msdos.sys} with session id=CA46754B-5FF8-49BF-96ED-F3DB0052EDF0

Error

object explicitly disposed: localFile={
.\vstor2-p2v30-13F6FA30007E00000000000002000000\msdos.sys}

msdos.sys is non-existent or inaccessible

FAILED parsing NTFS or Win9x_DOS partition

Cleaning up temp directory C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\vmware-temp\vmware-SYSTEM\sysReconfig ...

UfaSysReconfig::task::task: Image processing task has failed with MethodFault::Exception: sysimage.fault.OsVersionNotFound UfaSysReconfig::task::task: SetState to error Remote task UfaSysReconfig::task::task completed

Got an update from UfaSysReconfig::task::task Cleaning up remote task UfaSysReconfig::task::task Disposing task wrapper for task UfaSysReconfig::task::task

object explicitly disposed: UfaSysReconfig::task::task Debug Debug Info UfaSysReconfig::task::task being destroyed VmiReconfigTask::task step "Reconfigure VM" failed Reporting image processing task failure for task UfaSysReconfig::task::task

ImageProcessingTask FAILED. Fault name: sysimage.fault.OsVersionNotFound

object explicitly disposed: computer= Cleaning up computer's child objects Unregistring volume id=virtVol={computer=,0}

Unregistring disk id=disk=

VmiReconfigTask::task step "Reconfigure VM" destroyed Reconfiguration failed VmiReconfigTask::task: Image processing task has failed with MethodFault::Exception: sysimage.fault.ReconfigFault

VmiReconfigTask::task: SetState to error object explicitly disposed: VmiReconfigTask::task

VmiReconfigTask::task being destroyed

CloseSession called for session id=CA46754B-5FF8-49BF-96ED-F3DB0052EDF0

Removed vmdb connection /db/connection/#2/

I have attached the full log file and also the client log file.

[gautam]

Does the original machine have any diagnostic/utility partitions? Can you post what the default= line in boot.ini points to?

[JeffN1]

Thank you for your assistance. In the third message of this discussion I attached a screenshot of Disk Manager. As far as I know there are only 2 basic partitions on the hard drive. Here is the total contents of the boot.ini file -

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

[theanykey]

Unable to get fileextents for
?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1
hibernat.sys. Error: 2

CloneTask::task step "Cloning into volume virtVol={computer={e57f412a57c3f9766e5be56058d8167ba493e972},0}" in progress... Waiting for updates from CloneTask::task

(Re)Start waiting for property updates from CloneTask::task

Waiting for completion of task BlockLevelVolumeCloning::task Waiting for updates from BlockLevelVolumeCloning::task

(Re)Start waiting for property updates from BlockLevelVolumeCloning::task

Unable to get fileextents for
?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1
hiberfil.sys. Error: 2

Check to make sure hibernation is disabled and power settings reflect that

If it is already disabled, make sure you are not resizing the volume

If you have tried all this, I would suggest trying a cold clone with the CD

[JeffN1]

I just checked Power Options in the Control Panel and Enable Hibernation is not checked. In Converter I have checked for it to Ignore Page File and Hibernation File. I originally wanted to do a Cold Clone but doesn't that take the Enterprise version. To be honest, Converter seems to have so many problems I wouldn't spend my money on it. There is no guarantee the Enterprise version would work any better than the Starter version. My only hope is that the information in the log files is actually sufficient for someone to figure out what the problem is. The program shows the process shows is 97% complete before it fails. It is the same whether I am trying to import one disk or both. It is just the last 3 % where the problem is.

Thanks again for trying to help.

[jim5055]

I too am at wits end. The time I have spent on this already - should have started with a clean install on winxp and just re-installed all the apps.

Three separate physical XP sp2 machines and not one good hot conversion - all dying at 97%. But as already stated I have no confidence the full version would work either. I have a simple disk setup in this last attempt. Drive C is the boot partition and drive d is the logical partition I use for ghost 2003 backups. I have tried creating a vm on an external USB drive - no good - now trying on the local drive D will then try safe mode to the local drive - see if that works. I will post the accumulated logs after this attempt.

Edit: oops safe mode will not have the driver running. Trying to make an Acronis image then create VM from this.

Edit: also failed when making image from Acronis backup.

[admin]

Is your boot.ini on your XP machine set to read only or writeable? Something to try might be to set it to writeable before using Converter if it's failing at 97% but Converter has gone through the time of cloning the disks (you'll notice that a new VM with new virtual disk is created).

[jim5055]

Yes RO protection removed (have read earlier posts)

[theanykey]

More information has surfaced since my last post.

Try running chkdsk /R

Run converter again, this time with ignore Page file and resize the harddisk using the default minimum recommended that you can select from the drop down menu. Also make sure you are using a local admin.

[jim5055]

Tried the chkdsk thingy and the other recommendations - still no go.

Does the cloning ok - dies during the VM setup as follows:

09:16:24 AM Step 1 : Connecting to VMware Converter Agent on localhost

09:16:25 AM Step 2 : Creating target virtual machine and importing data

09:16:25 AM Configuring parameters for the target virtual machine...

09:16:32 AM Creating target virtual machine...

09:16:34 AM Formatting target volume c:...

09:16:47 AM Taking a snapshot of the volume...

09:17:20 AM Cloning source volume c: into target virtual machine...

10:10:16 AM Updating boot sectors...

10:10:17 AM Skipping boot.ini update...

10:10:17 AM Adjusting drive letter mappings...

10:10:28 AM Step 3 : Preparing target virtual machine

10:10:44 AM ERROR: Unknown error returned by VMware Converter Agent

I have attached the log file.

There is a VM created but it will not boot - blue screen of death.

sigh . .

[admin]

Assuming that cloning was successful and Converter failed at 97%, you can try launching Converter and selecting "Configure Machine" and browse to the ..vmx file of the new VM the previous cloning job created. See if that goes successfully-- it should take less than a minute.

[jim5055]

Yes, thought I would try this too as the VM file structure looked good and the .vmx file looked ok but this process died at 9%.

Looking at logs it seems that the converter is finding many mnay disk volumes - tries to parse them and drops errors - considering there are only two partitions - strange. The volumes are marked as CheckNonFixedMediaDevice so might be remnants of USB drives still in the registry that is causing the converter to spit the dummy - - - -

[mitvix]

I fix this problem change de default boot.ini from physical machine.

Old boot.ini like this:

\[boot\]

timeout=30

default=signature(c13a2909)**disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

\[operating systems\]

*signature(c13a2909)*disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, Standard" /noexecute=optout /fastdetect

Change for:

\[boot loader\]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

\[operating systems\]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003, Standard" /noexecute=optout /fastdetect

With this change signature(c13a2909) to multi(0) my converting process work very well.

Regards,

Alexander Manfrin

VMware Certified Professinal

Brazil

[mike_laspina]

Hello,

The most common issue with a live convert is the services are active and interupting the process. Stop all services on the source that are not required. Especially antivirus.

Also the logs show that you are using a account that is not identified as a local administrator. I would suggest that you use a verified local admin account.