new to forum, basic P2V question
Posted: Sat Nov 20, 2021 8:57 am
I have an old XP machine that I need to convert to a VM before the hardware fails. It has software that I use in my business -- some of which is no longer available, and in some cases, I no longer have the install disks. I intend to run the VM on my LInux machine that has a fast CPU, SSD, and lots of RAM.
I tried using VMware Converter Standalone to create what VMware refers to as a 'hot clone' of my XP machine that would run in VMware Workstation Player on the Linux box. However, when I start the VM, XP starts to load but throws a BSOD with a "7B" error. From what I gather in the Workstation forum, when hot-cloning a live OS, it's necessary to re-configure the VM with any non-standard drivers, which I can't do because Converter relies on something called "Sysprep files" for that, which unfortunately is not supported in XP Home, which is what I have. I looked into upgrading to XP Pro but I discovered that requires wiping the disk and installing from scratch, which I can't do.
According to the main StarWind page, P2V appears to be limited to Windows hosts and VMware ESXi, which if I understand correctly, is a stand-alone hypervsior/operating system for VMware products. So can StarWind create a VM of my live XP physical machine that will run on VMware's Workstation Player (*.vmdk)?
I tried using VMware Converter Standalone to create what VMware refers to as a 'hot clone' of my XP machine that would run in VMware Workstation Player on the Linux box. However, when I start the VM, XP starts to load but throws a BSOD with a "7B" error. From what I gather in the Workstation forum, when hot-cloning a live OS, it's necessary to re-configure the VM with any non-standard drivers, which I can't do because Converter relies on something called "Sysprep files" for that, which unfortunately is not supported in XP Home, which is what I have. I looked into upgrading to XP Pro but I discovered that requires wiping the disk and installing from scratch, which I can't do.
According to the main StarWind page, P2V appears to be limited to Windows hosts and VMware ESXi, which if I understand correctly, is a stand-alone hypervsior/operating system for VMware products. So can StarWind create a VM of my live XP physical machine that will run on VMware's Workstation Player (*.vmdk)?