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VMDK to VDH converted but does not boot

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 6:59 pm
by SorimBela
I have a legacy application running on WINDOWS2003 using VMWARE Workstation Pro 15. I have a requirement to convert the VM from VMWARE TO Hyper-V. I successfully converted the VMDK to VDH using Starwind V2V, there was no error during the conversion. I created the new VM in Hyper-V and attached the the converted disk and powered it on, it says "Unable to load operating system".

In VMWARE controller was SCSI but in Hyper-V default controller was IDE. I tried it with both the controller but same error. I also booted it to the DVD and went into the Windows repair and choose the option of command prompt and ran the following command: bootrec.exe /fixBoot , it said command successfully executed and rebooted the VM and same error. I tried the fixboot option with both IDE as well as SCSI controller.

Am I missing anything?

Re: VMDK to VDH converted but does not boot

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2021 3:50 am
by yaroslav (staff)
Welcome to StarWind Forum and thank you for sharing the workaround.
StarWind V2V converter does not support conversion of Windows 2008 and earlier VMs https://www.starwindsoftware.com/v2v-he ... tions.html.

Re: VMDK to VDH converted but does not boot

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 1:01 pm
by keith1fletcher
You should also make sure that the vmdk is set as a IDE disk. It's a common boot failure when converting vmdk to vhd that the boot disk is set to boot as a scsi disk, which Hyper-V doesn't support.

Re: VMDK to VDH converted but does not boot

Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2021 1:31 pm
by yaroslav (staff)
That's a great point.