Trying to convert existing physical XP to a VM on a new host

[virgil_machine]

Thank you.

I think we're getting away from the original purpose here. Let me recap:

• 1.I want to created a vm from an existing physical image (XP Pro part of a triple boot setup)
  2. My first attempt was to use VMWare converter to create a vmdk. That failed. Information on the VMWare web site indicates that may be because I have a triple boot setup. I don't want to undo that until I finish exploring other options.
  3. I struggled with Acronis True Image and clonezilla. The cz problems may be due to the boot setup I had. I got Acronis to work (i.e., I got it to create an image that I can import into a VM)
  4. In the course of this process I came into possesion of an old XP Home machine and decided to see if I could get the suggestions on this forum to work with it.
  5. I have a vm created, but it will not boot. It hangs on loading Mup.sys. I tried copying hal.dll and ntoskrnl.exe from an xp pro vm, but that did not help.
  6. Now I'm told to do a repair installation. I do not have the XP Home cd. I see where I can download floppies from MS, but not a cd. The Michael Stevens tutorial says to use the cd for the correct version (Pro or Home).

So the question is: will a repair install get me past the Mup.sys problem or is it to the solution to a problem I may or may not have?

Am I missing something?

[vbox4me2]

No, just follow number 6, you can try using nlite to create a CD from the floppies or borrow a CD.

[virgil_machine]

I'm trying.

I found an XP Home CD, went through the repair process, on reboot it continues in setup, copies some files, and asks for a product key. I enter the code on the sticker on the pc, and get "The CD key you entered is not valid."

This may have something to do with the system being a Dell OEM pre-install (since it specifically mentions a CD key), but I don't know. Another anomaly is that "magical jellybeans" tells me that the product key is different from what's on the sticker, but that key is also invalid. Windows is activated, and I'm confident that it's legal because I got it from a totally non-technical woman who used a dial-up connection and had not even applied any windows updates in the 6 years she had it--and she bought it a t a retail store.

Downloading the floppies from Microsoft won't help, because that's for a full retail version clean install. I don't have a retail version and I don't want a clean install.

My next step may be to update the product key. I found http://www.shivaranjan.com/2006/09/18/h ... formation/ that may help. OR, I could deactivate windows and try calling MS to re-activate (and maybe get some guidance on the product key issue).

Since I got this pc to experiment on and don't really need, I'm not too worried about trashing it, but it would be nice if I could get something to work without trashing it. What I'm trying to do is see if I can get a process to work so I can use it on the XP pro triple boot machine that I really want to virtualize.

[vbox4me2]

That key thing is a commonly known issue, if you can try and save wpa.dbl(from a backup copy or the original) and restore it after repair and the VM is up and running.

[virgil_machine]

But I can't get it up and running if it won't recognize the product key...

[vbox4me2]

Ofcourse you can via a linux CD or another VM to access the xp partition.

[virgil_machine]

Sorry, I'm not following you.

Do you want me to copy wpa.dbl from the physical machine to the VM that I have created from an image of the physical machine?

Will that help me with the repair installation?

Isn't the wpa.dbl in the vm already a copy of the physical?

My problem is that the repair install on the vm does not accept the product key of the physical machine.

The cd I have is XP Home SP3. I have updated the physical machine to SP3, but I have read that SP2 and later cds to not like pre-SP2 product keys (which my physical machine is, since it's old).

[vbox4me2]

Yes, wpa.dbl is also what gets deleted when you repair the installation. Ideally you have get to the stage where it wants to activate, but if thats not possible you can try putting that dbl file back via another OS or CD.

[virgil_machine]

OK.

I copied wpa.bdl from the physical machine to the server. I booted the vm from the ubuntu live cd, and replaced wpa.dbl in \windows\system32 with the file I copied from the physical machine. Then I booted the vm into windows, it continues the repair installation and asks for a product key. Same result--not valid.

I'll repeat in case I missed something. Did I do what you meant?

[vbox4me2]

No you did as it suppose to work, but you can't get passed that PK dialog page. XP is harder to migrate then others but it is possible. You now have to concentrate on what you have installed in the real machine that has to be removed or disabled before making a new image such as specific drivers, video drivers and such. Here there are no clear guidelines as just about anything can cause a conflict. One thing I haven't tried yet is to install the Guest Additions on the real machine and then image it before rebooting, it might kick out some conflicting parts.

[virgil_machine]

Thank you.

Before I imaged the physical machine, I created a second hardware profile, restarted using the new profile, then deleted everything I could in device manager, and rebooted. I thought that would avoid conflicts.

When the repair install reboots, I selected the second hardware profile.

Are you saying to do something different?

[vbox4me2]

No I'm not saying anything different, only that once you have done the basics and it won't work you have to resort to alot more hacking then the averidge user has knowledge about, I'm often called in for just such problems and with 25+ years experience there are still situations where I'd recommend a rebuild. As I said before a simple mainboard chipset driver which often can't be removed (or profile selected) can be a simple reason for a migration not to work.

[virgil_machine]

I understand. I just want to make sure I'm covering the basics so I don't go off on too many tangents.

Thanks for your help. I'll get back to this next week.

[Mostie]

After spending a bit of time trying to clone my Dell laptop using Clozezilla, I finally got it to boot...... but it stops at ... guess which file

[Sasquatch]

This is a wild guess, but mup.sys? Gotta love Windows and different hardware. The time you spend on all this is far more than what you would have needed by doing a clean install.

Anyway, did a quick google search for that issue, as another user has the same problem when switching from VMWare to VB. I used http://www.google.com/search?client=ope ... 8&oe=utf-8 for the search and came onto http://www.aitechsolutions.net/mupdotsysXPhang.html which you can try.