Having problem creating virtual machine from physical machine (bios, install, processor)

[brianjb]

I am using VMWare converter to create a virtual machine of a physical machine. This is something that I have done a lot in the past. It is pretty basic. You install it, then connect an eternal drive, and start the conversion process. It usually takes about an hour. What happens is that you get an image that you can open with Virtual Box or VMWare.

I have been fighting this issue for a few days now:

Getting this error:

FAILED: Unable to find the system volume, reconfiguration is not possible.


Googling this error, I found this page:

VMware Communities: FAILED: Unable to find the system...

That hints that I need to edit the boot.ini file.

I am not familiar with this file, and haven't done it before.

Can anyone help me that has seen this error?

I backed up the file with the command so that I at least have a starting point to go back to.

Modifying the Windows 7 boot loader with the Boot Configuration Data Editor tool | TechRepublic


I appreciate any help!!!!!

[brianjb]

I should have included this info.

The machine I am trying to create a virtual of is Windows 7 Enterprise 64 Bit.

I am using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 5.0.1 build-875114

[stevebri]

switch to oracle VM virtualbox, Also make sure you have the virtualization stuff in the bios enabled if it's an I processor (I3,I5,I7)

[TurcoLoco]

I have used VMware to convert a physical image to a virtual one and it was relatively painless but I have also used the free utility from SysInternals called Disk2vhd which was a breeze as well. You can also use the .vhd images created by this utility to load as a physical image on another disk by editing the BCD.

Speaking of bcd file, Windows Vista and 7 no longer uses Boot.ini as Windows XP does. So accessing the boot loader using notepad or msconfig is no longer feasible. You have to use the included Windows utility called bcdedit to modify the boot loader.

Here is a very good link that explains how you can do that. As mentioned on that site, make sure to backup the current configuration before doing any changes!

Good luck!


PS. And then there is EasyBCD