[SOLVED] Problem importing VMWare Win2012R2

[ejmerkel]

We have a customer with an old Windows 2012R2 server that they wish to move off a VMWare provider to Proxmox. We do not have access to get a VMWare backup so I am using Disk2VHD to make a snapshot copy of the disk over the network, and then import it into Proxmox as a SCSI drive.

I am able to get the server to boot up initially and can log into it via the console, but after I reboot it after the first boot it will no longer boot. The server has ESET security installed on it, so I set the server to boot in safe mode before cloning so I can remove ESET prior to booting in regular Windows thinking ESET may be doing something, but still it boots once and then not again even when ESET is removed.

I have tried booting off a Win2kR2 CD and trying a repair, but it always complains about the drive being locked but it does not appear to have bitlocker installed on it. I can go into the CMD prompt and see the drives so I know the drives are there.

I am not very strong when it comes Windows and boot environments and have tried chkdsk, fixing the boot records, etc and none of it works. I've been going in circles for days on this not sure what the issue is. Can any one lend advice on what to try next?

On a different note, I may want to find a Proxmox consultant to just do this conversion for me. Are any of you PVE Wizards on Upwork where I can contract this out to you? If so please DM me.

 

[sw-omit]

Have you tried importing it into Proxmox as a SATA drive instead of SCSI (or just detaching and re-attaching it as sata)?
SCSI has it quirks to get working on Windows, SATA usually works out of the box (even though it might be the best performance-wise)
Also, is the server installed with BIOS/MBR or UEFI/GPT?
If the later, have you set the option for it in Proxmox to UEFI as well as added a EFI-Disk (hardware, add, EFI-disk, keep everything as is)

 

[ejmerkel]

Have you tried importing it into Proxmox as a SATA drive instead of SCSI (or just detaching and re-attaching it as sata)?
SCSI has it quirks to get working on Windows, SATA usually works out of the box (even though it might be the best performance-wise)
Also, is the server installed with BIOS/MBR or UEFI/GPT?
If the later, have you set the option for it in Proxmox to UEFI as well as added a EFI-Disk (hardware, add, EFI-disk, keep everything as is)

Thank you. Going to SATA instead seemed to help. Also had to find the right version of VirtIO drivers to use with 2012R2 which is version 0.1.189. Newer versions would not install the drivers properly.

 

[sw-omit]

Thank you. Going to SATA instead seemed to help. Also had to find the right version of VirtIO drivers to use with 2012R2 which is version 0.1.189. Newer versions would not install the drivers properly.

Good to hear, and yeah because of the certificates expiring/changing (and W2012 not having the right/new root certificate) you'll have that issue installed.
If you do want to try giving scsi another go though btw, what works in 10/2016+ systems is the following:

• Attach a new scsi drive (don't need to configure it, just be "there" but you could configure it if you want to be sure. Alternatively if you already have a second drive, detach and re-attach that one as scsi)
• Reboot
• Shutdown (don't shut down right away, it needs to see the scsi drive during a boot once)
• Disconnect the C-drive and re-attach it as scsi
• Configure the Boot-order options to use this new scsi-drive
• Boot
• Disconnect/remove the temporary drive (if you're not using it)

Else you at least might want to edit the first post to include the [solved] tag to it