VMware vCenter Converter Standalone v. 6.2.0 build-8466193

F22 Simpilot said:

I didn't say copy the executable to another drive, I said install. You have to uninstall and reinstall to a folder on C drive. Doing this will allow you out of the restrictions of the programs folder, but it probably won't matter. It's worth a shot though.

The download I got for disk2chd was only a zip file containing 3 files including the executable. It's not an install. I copied the directory on the C: drive and ran the executable from there. Previously it was located on my desktop. Running it from the C: drive made no difference.

F22 Simpilot said:

Following the information from this link, you did change the system reserved partition to Z drive as the instructions say?

Yes I did go through all the steps and assigned a W: drive letter to the System Reserved Partition (Z: was already used in a mapped drive). But when I added Everyone to Full control in the Permissions settings I got an access denied popup box. Also the sequence of instructions in CMD as admin failed:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\marc yg aragnou>w:

W:\>fltmc unload aafsflt

Unload failed with error: 0x801f0013
The system could not find the filter specified.

W:\>cd "System Volume Information"
Access is denied.

W:\>

Here's the list of filters:


W:\>fltmc

Filter Name Num Instances Altitude Frame
------------------------------ ------------- ------------ -----
FsDepends 9 407000 0
mrigflt 6 401913 0
FortiAptFilter 13 324930 0
fortimon3 13 324920 0
FortiShield 12 324900 0
file_tracker 0 281420 0
file_protector 5 227000 0
luafv 1 135000 0
virtual_file 0 132400 0
FileInfo 13 45000 0

W:\>

I had a look for \windows\system32\DRIVERS\AAFsFlt.sys on my Win7 system. It's not even there. Is it something supposed to be in Windows 7? Or am I missing something.

Can you tell me the exact errors you're seeing with disk2vhd? Is there something in the error log? Just throwing this out there, but anti-virus of some kind of firewall software can mess with things.

multiweb said:

Is it something supposed to be in Windows 7? Or am I missing something.

I don't see it in my OS either.

F22 Simpilot said:

Can you tell me the exact errors you're seeing with disk2vhd? Is there something in the error log? Just throwing this out there, but anti-virus of some kind of firewall software can mess with things.



I don't see it in my OS either.

I get an unable to open disk 0 warning. There are no errors in the event log anymore. Just info.
That's the first thing I did. Check the firewall was off and took off the AV service down. Also any services that might interfere.

Is the "Virtual Disk" service on and set to automatic?

This bit of Info. seems to indicate it's just a warning that can be ignored, but in your case it's preventing an actual snapshot being generated. The event ID is different though. I'm assuming that's because it was generated in Windows 8.


Something I see here is that all volumes are checked off when you just want to turn volume V (8TB drive) into a virtual disk. You'd uncheck all volumes except volume V. This may be the reason to the error due to high IO load.

You could try VSS Doctor and see what it reports and if their fix feature works for VSS if you do have VSS errors in the OS.

The free community version of Veeam might be an alternative. It says it performs "replications" which are apparently bootable copies of a system. But I don't know if that's in a VMware or other virtual machine format. I'd have to run the software and see what it's capable of.

Downloading VSS doctor and running it gave me some very useful feedback. The more I go the more I am convinced it is a security/access issue. You mentioned in a previous post if my profile had admin rights.

In the registry I added manually my profile and the default Administrator in the VSSAccessControl and that took care of some of the warnings I had. I also had to change a few things in the services for the run types auto vs. automatic as prompted by VSS Doctor. So I went through everything until I had all green ticks.

I still get the access to drive (X) denied and that points to a security issue as this is the common denominator now between the standalone VMware converter or Disk2VHD. I have the latest Wireshark 3.4.4 installed on my machine. Do you think I could put a filter in place while I'm initiating the Disk2VHD process and monitor in real time a trace that could pinpoint where the bottle neck is?

So, Wireshark is just a packet capture program. Unless you're trying to turn a network drive into a virtual hard disk file, it won't be much of any use. Unless I'm missing something here. Does VMware Convertor or Disk2VHD use a network connection to create a virtual disk file?

What you'd most likely want to do is monitor the file system and processes to see exactly what is going on behind the scenes. I'll make a list here for you to check out.

Process Explorer: Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs

Process Hacker: Overview - Process Hacker

Process Monitor: Process Monitor - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs

RegFromApp: RegFromApp - Generate RegEdit .reg file from Registry changes made by application

What Changed portable (This one will take a God awful long time to run and take a snapshot: WhatChanged Portable (registry and file change utility) | PortableApps.com

Disk Pulse (This one will monitor changes on the fly with filtering ability. I use it as a sanity check for a secure PC): DiskPulse - Disk Change Monitor

I gave a link to Veeam above as a possible and better alternative. Without me downloading and trying Veeam myself, I wanted to know if it actually made a virtual disk from a host. Reading here it looks like that is possible. I need to try the software myself. That link I gave is for a free community addition.

Off topic really quick. I watch Skynews out of Australia and saw a few weeks ago about the floods in New South Wales. How did you manage that? It looked analogous to hurricane Katrina here in the U.S., state of Louisiana.

F22 Simpilot said:

So, Wireshark is just a packet capture program. Unless you're trying to turn a network drive into a virtual hard disk file, it won't be much of any use. Unless I'm missing something here. Does VMware Convertor or Disk2VHD use a network connection to create a virtual disk file?

What you'd most likely want to do is monitor the file system and processes to see exactly what is going on behind the scenes. I'll make a list here for you to check out.

Process Explorer: Process Explorer - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs

Process Hacker: Overview - Process Hacker

Process Monitor: Process Monitor - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs

RegFromApp: RegFromApp - Generate RegEdit .reg file from Registry changes made by application

What Changed portable (This one will take a God awful long time to run and take a snapshot: WhatChanged Portable (registry and file change utility) | PortableApps.com

Disk Pulse (This one will monitor changes on the fly with filtering ability. I use it as a sanity check for a secure PC): DiskPulse - Disk Change Monitor

I gave a link to Veeam above as a possible and better alternative. Without me downloading and trying Veeam myself, I wanted to know if it actually made a virtual disk from a host. Reading here it looks like that is possible. I need to try the software myself. That link I gave is for a free community addition.

Thanks. Downloading now and will have a look.

F22 Simpilot said:

Off topic really quick. I watch Skynews out of Australia and saw a few weeks ago about the floods in New South Wales. How did you manage that? It looked analogous to hurricane Katrina here in the U.S., state of Louisiana.

It got bad in parts but we weren't affected were we are. Northern NSW and the coast bore the brunt of it.

Historic Floods in New South Wales

multiweb said:

It got bad in parts but we weren't affected were we are. Northern NSW and the coast bore the brunt of it.

Historic Floods in New South Wales

Pretty crazy that's where those massive wildfires were and now this. They mention La Niña which means we could see a lot of rain which would be great since we've had hundreds upon thousand of square miles of wildfires here in the Rockies near where I live. This was due to a very dry season. I fear that once the run off occurs from the snow melt the water supply will be contaminated so I need to stock up on a massive amount of water. Colorado gets its water from the snow melt in the Rocky Mountains. California as well has had their fair share of fires, though, for that state it's like the freaking Norm. We are in a tornado prone area so I hope La Niña doesn't spur that on if it's related. Several years ago a town just east was hit by a massive tornado. Tornado outbreak sequence of May 22–31, 2008 - Wikipedia

Looking here, I see La Niña was pretty strong for the years 2007-2008, and it was 2008 when the massive EF3 tornado hit in Windosr. So far it looks like this year is moderate. Certainly not weak so I'm predicting some tornado bull crap coming up.

I've been into radio communications for about 25 years now and have yet to get my amateur radio license. I've always just listened to public safety and what have you. Back in high school I did try getting my license but failed because I was studying an older book using the old question pool of 300 questions for the test of 35 questions. After that I never picked it up again. Now I'm studying with an App, and I feel like I REALLY should get my license soon before tornado season. Also, there is a license here for something called GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) around ~462 MHz. It doesn't require a test, just a fee and covers your whole immediate family, and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is lowering that fee to $35. When that happens I'm applying so that I have that availability as well. There are at least two GMRS repeaters here and a whole Colorado state wide amateur radio repeater system. Which means I can be practically anywhere in Colorado and talk to anyone in Colorado. Not all areas are covered, but a good portion of the state is. A lot of these repeaters use microwave links and what have you.