Migrating Windows Guests from Virtual PC to Virtual Box 3.x

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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MFRED
Posts: 7
Joined: 4. Nov 2007, 00:46

Migrating Windows Guests from Virtual PC to Virtual Box 3.x

Post by MFRED »

Hi,

how do I migrate an existing Windows 2000 Guest from Virtual PC (either Connectix v5.2 or MS VPC 2007) to VirtualBox 3.x?

I've searched the forum, I've read the Migrate_Windows page (http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows), so I thought I'd give it a try:
  • run mergeide inside the Virtual PC Windows 2000 (SP4) Guest - fine
  • check which HAL is being used (it's Hal.dll (Standard PC) - fine)
  • properly shut down the Virtual PC Guest
  • make a backup copy of the VHD - just in case...
  • create a new VM in VirtualBox, disable ACPI and IO-APIC
  • attach the Windows 2000 Guest VHD to it
  • boot it
What happens?
Well, it traps with a BlueScreen, so I booted to the recovery console and disabled the VirtualPC Services, checked again for agp440 and intelppm (both have not been there).
Second try, still a BSOD:
*** STOP 0x0000001e (0xc000001D, 0xF3C6111A, 0x804D71C5, 0xE1002B40)
KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED 

*** Address 804D71C5 base at 80400000, DateStamp 45ec3c8f - ntoskrnl.exe
My hope was that "after all those years" a migration from Virtual PC to VirtualBox should be something that can be done in an hour or so...
Obviously there's something wrong, either with my assumption above or with my Windows Guest... :wink:

Can anybody help me further or point me to a tutorial that is fool-proof?
vbox4me2
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Joined: 21. Nov 2008, 20:27
Location: Rotterdam
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Re: Migrating Windows Guests from Virtual PC to Virtual Box 3.x

Post by vbox4me2 »

Read the Forum FAQ and the QuickClick FAQ, its all in there.
And use google (see my sig) to search for more of the same.
MFRED
Posts: 7
Joined: 4. Nov 2007, 00:46

Re: Migrating Windows Guests from Virtual PC to Virtual Box 3.x

Post by MFRED »

Ok, I read through the FAQs again as well as through several other documents, and I finally managed to migrate the first VM from Connectix Virtual PC 5.2 to VirtualBox 3.02 using the following steps:
  • Uninstall Virtual PC Additions inside the Connectix Virtual PC Guest
  • Run mergeide
  • Shut down the guest and convert the VHD from "dynamically growing" to "fixed size"
  • Boot the VHD inside MS Virtual PC once (don't know why, but this seems to be important)
  • Boot the VHD inside VirtualBox and install the Guest Additions
My second VM though does not accept any mouse or keyboard commands as soon as I'm in the last step. It boots properly inside VirtualBox, runs applications from the Startup folder, tries to install some piece of virtual hardware (which I'd have to accept - but I can't), updates the system clock - but does not accept mouse or keyboard commands. :(
I even tried VRDP (connects, but no chance to click or type) and I also tried to install the VirtualBox additions in the step before (=inside MS Virtual PC 2007), which runs smoothly, but doesn't change the behaviour afterwards.
Even in safe mode, Windows (2000 SP4) does not accept any mouse or keyboard commands.

Any idea what else I can try in order to get this particular VM up and running?
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