Using Converter offline, via WinPE / PXE booting?

[Javik]

Does anyone know how I can install or run VMWare Converter Standalone on WinPE?

This is the Windows preboot execution environment provided with Windows Deployment Services on Server 2008 R2. It is a severely hobbled version of Windows 7 or 2008 R2 with most system services stripped out, and has a forced 24-hour reboot to annoy people trying to use it as an unlicensed Windows desktop OS.

Due to WinPE being so severely hobbled, can't use MSI installers on WinPE because it lacks the necessary support. If I try to launch the VMWare Converter installer after booting into WinPE, it simply says "the required subsystem is not available" and quits.

[Javik]

I should clarify why I would want to do this.

The best way to clone a partition is when it is not in use. If no files are open, nothing is being changed while the source is being copied.

So this way the target machine I want to convert is simply treated as "data disks" to WinPE and has no files in use when cloned by Converter.

However Converter doesn't give the ability to choose which Windows partition installation to modify on the source server, to change drivers or anything else. It assumes the booted Windows OS (WinPE) is the OS to be converted and modified, when in fact I don't want to migrate WinPE at all, and if it is required to be copied, I will discard it as a temporary partition not needed on the final converted VM.

So, need to run VMWare Tools on the source machine before conversion so those drivers will already be present when the unmodified partitions are migrated by Converter.

[Rosen Tomov]

It's not easy to run the Converter in WinPE environment, generally you need to copy installation on WinPE and correct paths and registry, Converter should run after that.

But running Converter in this way will copy WinPE OS not your real OS, as result your VM probably will not run.

Are look at 'Data to copy/Advanced' options? There are ability to change and exclude volumes, I don't understand "Converter doesn't give the ability to choose which Windows partition installation to modify on the source server, to change drivers or anything else."

The open files are not a problem for Converter because it uses VSS, for changed files during conversion there is a 'Incremental' option.

HTH

[patanassov]

I would advocate Rosen's suggestion to use hot cloning. VSS ensures volumes' consistency, besides you can stop important services before cloning so that no important changes are being made during cloning.

However if you do need cold cloning, you may have a look at continuum's MOA (sanbarrow.com)

[Javik]

As mentioned in my other thread, hot cloning results in NTFS file system corruption and a disk check on first boot of the migrated server that always has to delete a bad attribute record in the $J. So it is not hot cloning NTFS correctly no matter what I do.

Since it appears I cannot do WinPE conversion, I am going to have to do the next step down the rung for offline cold cloning.

File Server: Dell PowerEdge 2900

- Two RAID-5, one OS boot 73g x2, one data drive 300g x4

- Running Server 2008 R2 SP1

Install VMWare Tools on Server 2008, to preinstall VM drivers.

Insert another spare SAS hard drive

  - in controller, configure as RAID-0

  - in controller, set this as boot drive

Install basic Windows 7 DVD on this drive

Install Standalone Converter on  Windows 7

Clone to VMWare ESXi 5.5

In cloned machine

  - Delete the Windows 7 VMDK

  - Configure migrated VM settings manually

Boot from the original Server 2008 R2 disk, which has not been twiddled by Converter but copied raw to the VMDK.

[Rosen Tomov]

IMO the NTFS on the source is corrupted and needs repair, try the chkdsk /R and then convert again.

[Javik]

That took about 7 hrs, but chkdsk /f /r found no problems.

"Can't check while system is running, do you want to run at boot time?" Yes

======================================================

Checking file system on E:

The type of the file system is NTFS.

Volume label is Vol1.

A disk check has been scheduled.

Windows will now check the disk.                      

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...

  1837056 file records processed.

File verification completed.

  290 large file records processed.

  0 bad file records processed.

  0 EA records processed.

  0 reparse records processed.

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...

  2159740 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.

  0 unindexed files scanned.                                  

  0 unindexed files recovered.                                    

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...

  1837056 file SDs/SIDs processed.                                      

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.

Security descriptor verification completed.

  161343 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...

  1247696 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...

  1837040 files processed.

File data verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...

  51383118 free clusters processed.

Free space verification is complete.

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

877261823 KB total disk space.

669301384 KB in 1252589 files.

    493516 KB in 161344 indexes.

        0 KB in bad sectors.

  1934451 KB in use by the system.

    65536 KB occupied by the log file.

205532472 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

219315455 total allocation units on disk.

51383118 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:

00 08 1c 00 39 93 15 00 6e 1c 1f 00 00 00 00 00  ....9...n.......

e6 18 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

==============================================

Checking file system on C:

The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.

Windows will now check the disk.                        

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...

  199936 file records processed. 

File verification completed.

  889 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.

0 EA records processed. 

104 reparse records processed.

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...

  262022 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.

  0 unindexed files scanned. 

  0 unindexed files recovered.

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...

  199936 file SDs/SIDs processed.

Cleaning up 14 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 14 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 14 unused security descriptors.

Security descriptor verification completed.

  31044 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...

  1300704 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...

  199920 files processed.

File data verification completed.

CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...

  4907791 free clusters processed.

Free space verification is complete.

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

  70936575 KB total disk space.

  50939880 KB in 152681 files.

     94320 KB in 31045 indexes.

         0 KB in bad sectors.

    271211 KB in use by the system.

     65536 KB occupied by the log file.

  19631164 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

  17734143 total allocation units on disk.

   4907791 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:

00 0d 03 00 ba cd 02 00 5f 1d 05 00 00 00 00 00  ........_.......

da 00 00 00 68 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ....h...........

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.

Please wait while your computer restarts.

======================================================

[Rosen Tomov]

I see:

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.

and:

Cleaning up 14 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 14 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 14 unused security descriptors.

So you could try to convert again.

HTH

[Javik]

I got the same result.... Cross-linked files on drive C:  but no problems on drive E:

This was found just doing the "lightweight" chkdsk /f

Due to that I'm not going to bother doing a 6-hour long  /f /r on the copied VM.

Onward to Windows 7 Extra-disk cold cloning, and if that too fails, then I'm going to have to do the traditional route: build a new server, migrate via robocopy.

==============================

Checking file system on E:

The type of the file system is NTFS.

Volume label is Vol1.

A disk check has been scheduled.

Windows will now check the disk.                    

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...

  1837056 file records processed.  

File verification completed.

  290 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.

0 EA records processed.

0 reparse records processed.

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...

  2159740 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.

  0 unindexed files scanned.

0 unindexed files recovered.

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...

  1837056 file SDs/SIDs processed.

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 1 unused security descriptors.

Security descriptor verification completed.

  161343 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...

  121504 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.

Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

877261823 KB total disk space.

672696176 KB in 1252608 files.

    493516 KB in 161344 indexes.

        0 KB in bad sectors.

  1933363 KB in use by the system.

    65536 KB occupied by the log file.

202138768 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

219315455 total allocation units on disk.

  50534692 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:

00 08 1c 00 4c 93 15 00 94 1c 1f 00 00 00 00 00  ....L...........

e6 18 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

================================

Checking file system on C:

The type of the file system is NTFS.

A disk check has been scheduled.

Windows will now check the disk.                      

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...

Attribute record of type 0x80 and instance tag 0x4 is cross linked starting at 0x3c58 for possibly 0x1 clusters.

Some clusters occupied by attribute of type 0x80 and instance tag 0x4 in file 0x78bc is already in use.

Deleting corrupt attribute record (128, "") from file record segment 30908.

  199936 file records processed. 

File verification completed.

  892 large file records processed.

0 bad file records processed.

0 EA records processed.

104 reparse records processed.

CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...

  262100 index entries processed.

Index verification completed.

  0 unindexed files scanned.

0 unindexed files recovered.

CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...

  199936 file SDs/SIDs processed.  

Cleaning up 21 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 21 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.

Cleaning up 21 unused security descriptors.

Security descriptor verification completed.

Inserting data attribute into file 30908.

  31084 data files processed.

CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...

  1171544 USN bytes processed.

Usn Journal verification completed.

CHKDSK discovered free space marked as allocated in the volume bitmap.

Windows has made corrections to the file system.

  70936575 KB total disk space.

  58966664 KB in 152713 files.

    94372 KB in 31084 indexes.

        0 KB in bad sectors.

    271215 KB in use by the system.

    65536 KB occupied by the log file.

  11604324 KB available on disk.

      4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

  17734143 total allocation units on disk.

  2901081 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:

00 0d 03 00 02 ce 02 00 ed 1d 05 00 00 00 00 00  ................

d9 00 00 00 68 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ....h...........

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.

Please wait while your computer restarts.

[Rosen Tomov]

This seems the correct way to convert your server, (the consistent unfixable error is not good for your file-system at all)