Windows 2000 in VM Under Win 7??

[Jeffs]

Is this Possible?

I have just received a new system at work with Windows 7 Professional.

My old system is a Windows 2000 system that I am migrating from. Is it possible to create a virtual hard drive from the old system and boot into it under the virtual machine on Windows 7?

It would make the transition easier, and allow me to keep all my old programs and files "at hand" instead of having to run to the backups when I realize I missed something.

If it's possible, could someone explain step-by-step how I'd do it, and if any other programs are necessary to do it?

Thanks.

 

[huisinro]

It's possible, you can do it manually, or use a p2v tool.

By hand, you create a VHD file, mount it as virtual disk, then xcopy all files to the mounted drive. Some files that are being used won't be copied, so make sure you kill as many proccesses as possible.

The registry files can't be copied for sure, so you will have to export them as hive files to the virtual disk.

After you copy all files, you can hook the virtual disk to a vm, and check if you can boot.

This manual method will take quite some efforts, so you may want to try our MyOldPCs p2v converter, which does support 2000 and above.

http://www.vmlite.com/index.php/products/myoldpcs

hope this is helpful.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

forget that vmlite stuff that someone has been pushing for as "long as Pontius has been a Pilot" -- you don't need that at all.

VMWARE or VBOX will install a W2K virtual machine without ANY PROBS whatsoever. (Or even Virtual PC from MS).

All these have FREE versions (vmware has vmware server or vmplayer which can now CREATE VM'S which are free -- vmware workstation is a paid for product, whilst VBOX and VIRTUAL PC are free.

I prefer vmware - the create virtual machine wizard is really simple - especially for a totally NEW VM but you want to use your existing installation so you need to convert it first.

I've even got a W95 and a Windows 3.11 virtual machine running -- no probs at all.

The easy way is to use vmware and use the vmware Conversion tool to create your VHD disk from your existing OS (it's FREE)

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
Cheers
jimbo

 

[Arc]

VMWare is really a good choice. It allows you to run a lot of oss in virtual machine. Almost all versions of Microsoft, Linux and Sun is capable here.

 

[huisinro]

First, I answered this question because no one bothered to do so after it was sitting there 10 hrs.

Second, I mentioned MyOldPCs because it's better than VMware Converter, the following are some of the examples:

(1) If your host is dual core or multiple CPUs, after converted by VMware Converter, the vm WON'T boot in VPC, or VirtualBox without VT-x/AMD-V. Because VMware Converter never reconfigures kernel images. VMLite has no problems in this area.

(2) If your xp is installed on FAT32, instead of NTFS, this is not very popular, but still quite some old machines out there, VMware Converter WON'T work at all.

(3) You will most likely need to re-activate the Windows when running the vm converted by VMware Converter. you don't need to activate the vm when using MyOldPCs/VMLite combination as VMLite tries to preserve host hardware info.

(4) If one partition contains 2 Windows installations, for example, C:\Windows and C:\winxp, VMware will only process one.

(5) MyOldPCs supports virtual-to-physical conversion, for example, you can make the same Microsoft XP Mode VHD to boot a real computer, ...

There are many more stuff, if MyOldPCs is not better, why would I bother to do it?

 

[Jeffs]

MyOldPCs isn't available for download - only on "request". I already emailed them for a copy. I did this DAYS ago and got NO response (even before I posted here).

 

[huisinro]

sorry, we are holding off the requests for a new build. You should get the trial the next couple of days. For Windows 2000, make sure you reboot after MyOldPCs is installed, because our snapshot driver in 2000 requires a boot. No need to do so in XP and above.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
just forget all that stuff about trying it under some package hardly anyone has ever heard of.

Install W2K under vmware server / player or Vbox (all FREE) -- and 100,000's of users world wide-- on a decent W7 machine installing a W2K Virtual Machine will take all of 10 - 15 mins and you aren't dependent on the vagaries of the "developers" for releasing new versions of goodness knows what (and delivery by email only also is hardly a good recommendation for Software trialling -- even "Vapourware").

Sounds a bit like "an Under the Railway Arches" outfit to me.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[huisinro]

Jimbo,

What made you so mad on VMLite? Are you scared of its success?

Otherwise, I don't understand it. If you want to comment, do it based on some facts. If you haven't used the software, how do you know whether it's good or bad?

As a stanford PhD, I am not building "Vapourware", or "long as Pontius has been a Pilot".

Dr. Huihong Luo

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
My remarks are based om obsevations (people seem to have trouble with the site / getting hold of the apprpriate software etc) and the use of possible copyright infringements.

If your Software allows use of an OEM XP system (or any Microsoft OS that requires activation or a Serial number WITHOUT activation or using the serial number then you are breaking the law (or encouraging your users to -- please read the Windows XP EULA).

The only exception is where an OEM XP system is re-installed on the SAME computer it was originally installed on.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[huisinro]

MyOldPCs isn't available for download - only on "request". I already emailed them for a copy. I did this DAYS ago and got NO response (even before I posted here).

just sent out latest download info to all requested users, if you still didn't get it, let me know.

 

[Jeffs]

As an update...

1) I received a link for MyOldPCs and VMLite. I'm running the converter now on the W2k machine, but that's going to take all day apparently - mainly due to the fact the machine has a USB 1.1 port and the data transfer to the external HD is slow as molasses.

2) We already created a working VM image using a product called Acronis True Image Home (Beta) from an Acronis disk image (.tib) file. This was installed under the Microsoft Virtual Machine on Windows 7, and were able to boot the W2k VM. However, there is no virtual networking, so the data is 'stuck' inside the VM - I can't get it out to the host PC or visa versa. I'm hoping the VMLite works out better.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
you need to install the Virtual NIC adapter.

I don't know so much about Virtual PC but if you use vmware software install "vmware tools" - this will install from a "ISO image" too if you can't get a network connection.

Acronis will work for this too to create a vm from an existing .tib file.

Allow any firewall and AV software to share disks between host and VM and set vm networking to either NAT or Bridged.

If you use VBOX I think there's an equivalent program to vmware tools -- probably called something like "Additions" or whatever.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Jeffs]

OK, VMLite Workstation blue screened on me when installing it. So I give up with that.

The image I made with Acronis works under the Windows 7 Virtual PC, but I have no virtual networking, so like I said the data is stuck in that container and worthless. There has to be a way to make that work.

 

[huisinro]

really sorry about the crash issue, we have a few other customers reporting that:

http://www.vmlite.com/index.php/forums/9-vmlite-xp-mode/889-unable-to-un-install

due to the network filter power state bug, being worked on.

if you want to just copy out the files, you can use "vmlitectl mount your.vhd/vmdk/vdi/hdd", then dismount the mapped drive with "vmlitectl umount z"

we will provide a plugin to VirtualBox very soon, so you can VirtualBox + VMLite XP Mode

 

[zzz2496]

Jeffs, are you using Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7(the free VPC for Win7)? If so, stop the virtual machine. Open the Windows Virtual PC, it should open the Explorer window pointing to a folder where it stores .vmcx files (your Virtual Machine configuration files). In there, right click your VM, click settings. In there, look for "Networking", change the "Number of network adapters" from "None" to "1", put it to NAT for now. Once you done that, start the Virtual Machine, it should detect a new network interface (btw, disable "Integration Features" for now).

I hope this is what you want...

zzz2496

 

[Jeffs]

look for "Networking", change the "Number of network adapters" from "None" to "1", put it to NAT for now. Once you done that, start the Virtual Machine, it should detect a new network interface (btw, disable "Integration Features" for now).

@zzz...

The "Number of adapters" was already set to "1" (and grayed, can't be changed), and is already set to "Shared Networking (NAT)"

The Integration Features show as "Not Available" and if you click on the entry, the list on the right shows as light gray.

When you start the VM, no network connections are available. Now, by that I mean I cannot access the server based domain oriented network resources that I have to log on to to access. When I start the VM I am prompted to log in using my network password.

I do not appear to have any other network resources showing other than the drives that were mapped to the server resources when the VM image was made. Is it that I am not able to access these server resources, or my virtual networking is busted?

I remember when I run the XP Mode, you have a network drive that is the C: drive of the host OS. No such thing here. If I had just that, it would be fine. I don't care that I can't access the server resources on the domain, I just need to transfer data from the VM to the host OS drive C:

So, does this new information shed any light on what might be happening?

 

[zzz2496]

I see, can you change the network type from "Shared Networking" to something else other than none? In my computer, I have 2 network interfaces (I know to some degree, this is the limitation of Windows VPC), I assign the VM to use my unused network interface, by doing that, I'm actually bridging the whole thing.

See if you can do that...

If nothing above works, try VirtualBox and import the .vhd (make a backup first as usual) to VirtualBox. I have several VMs running on both VirtualBox and Microsoft Virtual PC. I have my old XP installation on both Virtualization solutions, both are up and running.

zzz2496

 

[Jeffs]

I couldn't get networking to work no matter what I changed.

I'm downloading VirtualBox now, but I am still feeling the pain from my encounter with VMLite this morning and having to restore my entire drive from my last image to wipe it away. Too time consuming.

I probably won't try VirtualBox until Monday so I have a current image, just in case.

What do I have to do with the .vhd file? Just import it into VirtualBox? I assume this is done after installing VirtualBox?

 

[zzz2496]

Jeffs,

1. Make a copy of your .vhd file to somewhere safe.
2. In VirtualBox (assuming it's installed), go to File-> Virtual Media Manager, under "Hard Disks" tab, add your .vhd file in there.
3. Now create a new virtual machine, define what you need (memory, processor, network, etc), but DO NOT CREATE a new virtual harddisk, use an existing Virtual Hard Disk, select your .vhd from the drop down box. Finish the Virtual machine creation wizard.
4. Edit the virtual machine, add network, and any other devices you might want to use, triple check everything, then press OK.
5. Start your virtual machine...

That should do it.
Report back if you bump into any issues.

zzz2496