"Save to File" greyed out :(

VM image converter (VMDK, VHD, VHDX, IMG, RAW, QCOW and QCOW2), P2V migrator

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JohnAbell
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:05 am

Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:19 am

I am trying to convert a physical Windows 8.1 Acer laptop to a HyperV VM.

I get through the process up until it wants to know the destination for where I want the virtual machine to go, and because this is in a home situation without a network, I would like the process to write the file to an attached USB drive so that upon completion, I can plug that USB drive into the new Windows10 PC and import it into HyperV which is running on that destination machine.

Except the process presents me with several options to networked destinations, such as the location on the network of the HyperV server, plus a 'greyed out' "Save to File", and it is this of course that option that would allow it to write to the file location of my choice.
Such a frustration to get to this far and find that the "file" option is there but non-functional.

Anyone have any idea why it should not be working?
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:44 am

Greetings JohnAbell,
networked destinations, such as the location on the network of the HyperV server
You need to select the Remote Hyper-V server at the first step of the conversion wizard if you plan to convert a VM to a remote Hyper-V server. Find more details at https://www.starwindsoftware.com/v2v-he ... erver.html.
However, I believe you need a network for that... So that does not work.
this is in a home situation without a network
Good solution will be converting volumes one by one and then provisioning a VM on Windows 10 PC manually. See here how to convert volumes https://www.starwindsoftware.com/v2v-he ... DVHDX.html.
JohnAbell
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:05 am

Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:31 pm

Thanks for replying. I will check out the volume method you have listed.
It would be interesting to know though why the "Save to File" is even listed if it is not available as a possibility.
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:59 pm

JohnAbell,

Please, let me know if that helps to resolve the task.
JohnAbell
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:05 am

Fri May 01, 2020 1:33 pm

In the end it failed.
The purpose of the exercise is to virtualise an old Windows 8.1 Acer laptop that has a particular application that works on it, but no longer has support because the application developer died, with support obviously no longer forthcoming, and due to the importance of that application, transferring into the virtual environment is an ideal solution. Acer laptops have 2 hidden volumes in a addition to drive C:, and whilst I was able to run the conversion process on all three , and transfer them to the HyperV server and attach them to a clean VM, I could not get it to boot.

I tried several variations of attachment, such as on IDE-0 I would attach the 2 hidden volumes, and on IDE-1 the Drive C:, and also vice-versa
I also tried attaching them to a SCSI controller. I booted up on a Windows8.1 DVD and ran a command prompt to utilise Bootrec to try and scan and fix the MBR

The problem is that all my reading indicates that the 2 hidden volumes are necessary to enable the C: to boot up.

So next week I am going to go back to Plan A, which is to network the 2 laptops via a 4 port switch, and then run the StarWind Converter and try converting the whole machine direct to the HyperV server running on the new laptop, in the hope that something about the 'whole machine' process will somehow magically preserve the boot order that doing them individually doesn't. I should add that this is not for me, but for a friend of mine - he owes me! :D
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Fri May 01, 2020 2:06 pm

JohnaAbell,
In the end it failed.
Did conversion fail, or the converted disk was not fit for use?

Please note that the laptop will be converted to a Generation 1 VM. By design, StarWind V2V Converter everything that boots BIOS to Generation 1 VMs.

If there is anything I can assist you with, please, let me know.
JohnAbell
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:05 am

Fri May 01, 2020 2:24 pm

As I mentioned above, I was able to run the converter on both the 2 hidden volumes and the C: drive successfully, resulting in 3 VHD files.
I selected Gen 1 when creating the blank VM, so compatibility there is not the issue I think.

The problem I think is the difference between running a manual conversion of the 3 drives and attempting to configure them in a VM, vs the way your converter creates a VM when set to do a full machine conversion.

Specifically, given the Acer laptop has 2 hidden volumes: ie a 300Mb boot partition, a 17gb recovery partition, and a 100gb C: drive, how does the StarWin converter provision the new VM? Does is provision it with IDE or SCSI?
If IDE, would it attached the 2 hidden volumes to the first IDE controller and the C drive to the second IDE?

If I knew how the Starwin converter natively provisions the HyperV VM, then I could probably reproduce that manually.
yaroslav (staff)
Staff
Posts: 2279
Joined: Mon Nov 18, 2019 11:11 am

Mon May 04, 2020 10:21 am

Hi JohnAbell,

Disks should be provisioned with IDE. As a Gen1 VM is created at the end, there should be IDE.
Actually, hidden volumes are common for system disks and I did not encounter problems doing P2V conversion.

StarWind V2V Converter creates a VM of the same properties on the target host. Here is the info https://www.starwindsoftware.com/v2v-he ... nario.html.
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