Migrating Real Windows to Virtualbox-Yes i read the howto:)

stony777 · Post by **stony777** » 23. Jun 2008, 09:30

I thought that I would succeed in migrating an existing Windows 2000 installation to virtualbox easily - sadly i was wrong.
I have to get this woring until end of this week, so i really need your help.

I have done the following so far:

Applied the mergeide.reg to the registry.
Cloned the installation with clonezilla.
Booted virtualbox with 2 virtual harddrives with knoppix.
Saved the Image to the second harddrive in virtualbox.
Restored the image with clonezilla to the First harddrive.

Now windows starts up to the point where the logo should appear. (The bar with Windows is beeing started goes right through).

Then it stops.

I hoped that this error would disappear with the mergeide.reg applied before the backup but it didn't.

Does anyone have another suggestion?

kyboren · Post by **kyboren** » 25. Jun 2008, 22:27

I had this exact same problem at first. What I found is that you need to have created a new hardware profile, then at the menu where you select the profile at boot-time, move the cursor between the options, then select the one for VirtualBox. It looks like this forces Windows to re-load the profile (or something), and you get the old white, DOS-style progress bar (it fills up quickly) at the bottom BEFORE the Windows logo screen. If you see this bar, I've found it means Windows will load. It still takes a bit and *looks* like it crashes when the logo is almost completely faded-in, but if you wait it out, Windows loads

Hope this helps.

EDIT:
This was due to the ACPI bug. Once I fixed that (see here for the fix), Windows takes like 2 seconds to boot and I haven't experience any lag at all.

Good luck!

dranf · Post by **dranf** » 8. Jul 2008, 21:51

OK, I've read the pdf, the faq, the tutorial and now this post. I've done all the tutorial suggestions. I get that I've got to create a clone using clonezilla, but I just don't get how a linux utility, knoppix, is used once I create the clone (wouldn't BartXP do the same thing?).

Has anyone successfully migrated a physical WinXP system to a working vbox vm/vdi and can you post the steps please (I understand that there will invariably be driver issues, but I can work through those myself; just need a working process)?

THANKS VERY MUCH!!!

Post by **Sasquatch** » 8. Jul 2008, 22:14

I believe the problem of the Topic starter is that he either has no MBR, or not a valid one. I suggest a boot from the original install disk, go into recovery mode and use the commands 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr'.
This error is known when cloning a system to a new hard disk. It sometimes takes the MBR with it, or it sometimes doesn't and give you no option to boot.

When I have some more time (that is, it won't happen today but later this week), I will create an image of my current system and try to restore that image to a VM using Acronis TrueImage. If I succeed, I will post it here. The fact that I use this program does not mean it will not work with other programs. If Acronis is able to clone the system properly, then it is very likely that other programs, like CloneZilla, is able to do it too.

bob23450 · Post by **bob23450** » 9. Jul 2008, 16:41

Sasquatch: I don't think it's a MBR problem because it seems that the first boot step took place without complaints from the BIOS.

kyboren: I had the same problem migrating a Win2k vmware machine to virtualbox, but simply adding a hardware profile did not help.

Here's how I succeeded: there are some more steps that must be done *before* cloning the original installation, other than those listed here: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows

1) open the device manager, select Computer->ACPI multiprocessor PC (or something like this), reinstall the driver by forcing "Standard PC" (you will be warned that your system might become unstable or even stop working: don't mind, it can't get worse!)

2) now open the "Standard PC" property sheet and disable the option for obtaining IRQ table from PCIBIOS in real mode (I can't be more precise because I worked on a localized version)

3) Change the value of the key Start to 4 for the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\agp440

Now perform the cloning procedure as outlined by stony777

Moving from one virtualization system to the other would require additional actions like uninstalling the virtual drivers (i.e. vmware tools) before cloning and installing the new ones (i.e. guest additions) once the new virtual machine can boot at least in safe mode.

If you are worried about hacking the original system (you should!) then take an image (with Acronis True Image or similar) before the modifications and restore it after the cloning.

I hope it can help.

dranf · Post by **dranf** » 11. Jul 2008, 01:54

Got it to work; thanks for the assist, here's how I did it:

Physical PC (Host): Dell APIC PC (Optiplex Gseries) w/SCSI controller/drives running WinXP SP2 w/external Maxtor USB hard drive

Virtual PC (Guest): Generic WinXP with Guest Additions v1.60

P2V Migration Steps:
1. Installed VBox within Host O/S,
2. Followed the Migration Tutorial for all tips and for AGP440.sys, but edited service in registry in CurrentControlSet key modifying startup value to 4. I also edited Host's boot.ini to create an option to select Safe Mode from boot screen.
3. Partitioned Maxtor USB drive into 2 partitions on Host.
4. Created Guest using WinXP CD on 1st partition w/Guest Additions and make 2nd partition available to Guest by creating VMDK file for it and attached to Guest. Changed Guest settings to enable both APCI and IOAPCI.
5. Downloaded trial of Acronis TrueImage onto partition 2.
6. Installed TrueImage and created sector image of Host C drive onto partition 2.
7. Booted into Guest, installed TrueImage from partition 2.
8. Restored TrueImage image from partition 2 onto Guest's C drive.
9. Booted into Guest's safemode and everything loaded; disabled my Host's 3Com integrated LAN card which was causing load failure once mup.sys loaded.
10. Restarted into Normal mode and voila, success with even my Symantec Antivirus loading without any issues.
11. Cleaned up other hardware driver issues and tested all applications; MS Office 2007 required reactivation which I did successfully online, updated virus definitions, checked USB printing/webcam which I had to enable in the Guest settings. All looks good except for Audio at the moment, but I note others have worked around this; just a matter of time.

Now I can take my USB drive and connect to other platforms and clonevdi the images to local hard drives and I'll have my Guest (former Physical PC) with me whether that's on my MAC laptop or AMD Ubuntu system; quite pleased!

So, thanks again; hopefully, anyone attempting this will find my steps helpful which is just building on the inputs of others already posted.