[SOLVED] Migrate Win7 PC to VM stuck at starting windows..

[eddie]

Hello everyone,
I just done with the migration from Physical windows 7 to a VM into Proxmox 5.0.

My pve version is :
pve-manager/5.0-30/5ab26bc (running kernel: 4.10.17-2-pve)

I have done with selected: write back (which I can start windows）
I have done with changed display from Default to Std 　

Then, I shutdown the windows 7 and start. then it still stuck at starting windows couple hours.

Does anyone has same problem before or any suggestion I can do ?

I am appreciate any answers.
Thanks!

 

[fireon]

You must follow a litte migrationprocess:

• deinstall all not needet drivers, f.eg. nividiadrivers..., all special agents.... everything what is not needed in a VM.
• set the networkinterface to DHCP
• Excute the Mergeide.reg
• Shutdown and Migrate what ever you would like
• On new VM first change to IDE and RTL8139, after first start and reboot change IDE to SCSI and network to virtio

Follow also that: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Windows_7_guest_best_practices
Maybe not so uptodate.

 

[eddie]

Thank you fireon. I just did a change from IDE to Virtio then got it work.
But I finally changed to Virtio and wait for couple minutes it was trying to load desktop but it shows bluescreen and auto reboot. I also trying to get into safe mode for some reasons after loading screen it still shows bluescreen then auto reboot.
Is there anyway I can stop proxmox reboot (windows vm ?) in order to get bluescreen error number?

thanks

 

[fireon]

In that situation a try forward with an screenvideograpper.

 

[jim.bond.9862]

unless there is a very very very very good reason to P2V ,
I would just create a VM and install Windows in it from scratch.
Windows, especially win 7 and up are not very good at P2V.
a lot more trouble than it worth. IMHO. I did it couple of time, but I was using Hyper-V as target host
and all I did is used hardrive to virtual drive conversion I think it was H2V or something that converted the install on the fly into vdx file that I simply attached to the new VM. it worked but didn't run well.
however it did run well enough for me to grab a few files and programs config off of it and move it to a normal install in VM system.

 

[jim.bond.9862]

Thank you fireon. I just did a change from IDE to Virtio then got it work.
But I finally changed to Virtio and wait for couple minutes it was trying to load desktop but it shows bluescreen and auto reboot. I also trying to get into safe mode for some reasons after loading screen it still shows bluescreen then auto reboot.
Is there anyway I can stop proxmox reboot (windows vm ?) in order to get bluescreen error number?

thanks

proxmox does not reboot the VM. it is a normal windows behavior when there is a problem with driver, specifically Hard drive driver or device, a video driver or device to reboot after BSD. some errors result in a hard crash thus stay on the screen but some what you would call a soft - crash that mean windows is trying to recover from it and reboot.

 

[eddie]

proxmox does not reboot the VM. it is a normal windows behavior when there is a problem with driver, specifically Hard drive driver or device, a video driver or device to reboot after BSD. some errors result in a hard crash thus stay on the screen but some what you would call a soft - crash that mean windows is trying to recover from it and reboot.

Thanks Jim.
I know unless good reason came out for converting physical machine into VM, but this windows PC is host quickbook company profile, ups and inventory and I just trying to reduce time and avoid to reinstall with lot settings and configuration with other software.
I understand Proxmox does not reboot the VM, it is windows behavior. But whenever I trying to get blue screen to get error code it always jump back to reboot in just 0.5 second.

 

[eddie]

In that situation a try forward with an screenvideograpper.

Thanks fireon, but what is screenvideograpper ?
thanks

 

[jim.bond.9862]

I don't think you can run screengrabber in proxmox.
doesn't it needs a desktop?

eddie, try maybe this tutorial https://www.b-rent.com/win7-p2v.html
also read this https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Migration_of_servers_to_Proxmox_VE
or this one http://edoceo.com/howto/kvm-windows-p2v
you can also try cloneZilla and clone the HDD to virtual disk once you are in VM.
http://clonezilla.org/lecture-materials/015_OSC_Tokyo_Spring_2014/slides/OSC2014-Tokyo-Spring.pdf
that is use cloneZillato make an image of the original HDD.
build out your VM as needed. amke sure you match the disk size to the original one.
attach cloneZilla ISO as DVD to VM
attach disk where you store the image
boot up from ISO and restore image to new disk.
should boot ok with some minor errors.
FYI you might need to reactivate the windows though as it will see that it it on the new hardware.

and FYI #2 : you might have a better luck using the dd method , but that requires you to have another space on your Proxmox to host a full size image of your windows 7 hard drive. ie. if your win7 HDD is 2TB you will have to have the virtual drive of that same size. I would try doing Clonzilla full drive clone before as it helps shrink the source disk if needed.

when I did p2v I used disk2vhd to convert the install ito virtual disk. than simply attached the disk to new VM in Hyper-V https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd

this will works for Hyper-V. but you need to try and match the VM specs to the hardware as close as you can.

 

[fireon]

Thanks fireon, but what is screenvideograpper ?

Or take a video with your smartphone...

 

[eddie]

here is the solution I did. Kinda like reinstall new stuff with PCTrans transfers applications and user data.
Install new VM win 7 then install both win 7 to use PCTrans to copy over everything.
then solved my problem.
yes, P2V is a pain unless have really good reason to do so. I totally agree.
thanks every one here for helping me with solution.