3

I have found lots of guides on how to create a virtual image of a win xp or newer windows, but it eludes me how I can do that with win 2000 server. Anyone have any good input here? I was hoping to end up using virtualbox.

2
  • Can you clarify whether you want to install a virtual machine from scratch or if you would rather convert a currently physical machine to a virtual one?
    – pacey
    Nov 25, 2010 at 12:44
  • I want to convert a currently physical machine to a virtual one.
    – cc0
    Nov 25, 2010 at 13:39

4 Answers 4

4

VMware Converter version 3 is supported for 2000. Then you may be able to convert from their format to a VirtualBox format.

I run plenty of 2000 VMware images but cannot remember how I made them. Too long ago and too many other servers later.

6
  • Interesting, I am giving that a whirl. Seems it should be entirely doable to convert to vhd after such a process. Thank you.
    – cc0
    Nov 26, 2010 at 7:48
  • Ok, I managed to create a VMDK backup of the win 2000 server harddrive. Then I used the 'vmdk2vhd' tool to convert it to VHD, then I loaded it in VirtualBox. It does start to boot, but it freezes before it loads the windows logo. I tried this on two different computers with different hardware, the same thing happened. I am puzzled as to what the cause could be.
    – cc0
    Nov 29, 2010 at 7:23
  • I booted with the win2k cd, used recovery console to fixboot and fixmbr, no difference. Any suggestions here?
    – cc0
    Nov 29, 2010 at 8:53
  • 1
    Have you tried having a fiddle with the ACPI settings? Windows can sometimes be a little finicky about being uprooted from its original hardware.
    – Novex
    Nov 29, 2010 at 11:34
  • 1
    Awesome, this worked! Just enabled IO APIC, that was all I had to do. Thank you Novex! :]
    – cc0
    Nov 29, 2010 at 13:55
3

You should read up on the Virtualbox documentation on Migrating Windows Machines.

On creating the LowLevel Image mentioned in the above document I would read up on Imaging your Hard Drive using dd

3
  • The 2nd link there might be helpful, although it's going to be hard to do. It's a server located in a server room with lots of security clearances needed, so if I was to hook up an extra drive to it that would certainly take some effort. But thank you, if it comes down to that I might have to attempt it. Hopefully some other option will come up though, I do have remote access to it.
    – cc0
    Nov 25, 2010 at 14:21
  • 2
    The problem which prevents current software from working with win2k is that most tools uses Windows' Volume Snapshot feature which is present since WinXP
    – pacey
    Nov 25, 2010 at 14:45
  • Exactly, therein lies the problem.
    – cc0
    Nov 26, 2010 at 7:47
1

Disk2vhd by SysInternals The difference between Disk2vhd and other physical-to-virtual tools is that you can run Disk2vhd on a system that’s online

0

I believe Symantec's Ghost product can make images that can be run by VMWare

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .