Easy way to P2V using any Backup tool without making complex Boot CDs

I had trouble migrating Physical servers to VMware VM. Somehow, even after using TI UR and forcing the VMWare SCSI Driver to be loaded, restoring my physical image into a VMware VM still BSODed.

I looked at some posts here but most recommended using commercial P2V Tools or BartPE or similar Boot CD method, which is quite complex to setup initially, for someone who is not familiar with making such Boot CDs.

Well, I found an easy way to do P2V manually, without any P2V tools. I don't know why no one has suggested this one yet No need to download Driverpacks (which didn't work for me, still BSODed), no need to make complicated Bart PE or whatever else Boot CD's and download and customize TI and other plugins, etc etc....... basically just load the VMWare SCSI Drivers into the Physical system before backing up. Everything else is cakewalk after.

For those of you who want detailed steps, below:

1. Download VMWare Buslogic SCSI Driver here.
http://www.vmware.com/download/gsx/drivers_tools.html
http://www.vmware.com/download/ws/drivers_tools.html
(Same version, same date....I think they are the same identical driver being used in GSX and Workstation)

2. Load the Floppy Image (*.flp) on an existing VM. (Add floppy drive using this image)

3. Copy the driver files from the floppy image to an network drive (or wherever you want)

4. On the physical machine to be P2Ved, go to control panel > Add/Remove Hardware. Pick SCSI Controllers > Have Disk and add the VMWare SCSI driver from step 3 into the system.

5. Reboot (just to be safe). Upon reboot windows may say "some drivers/services failed to load". It's ok. The VMWare SCSI driver can't find the hardware and gives the error.

6. Backup the Physical Machine to a network drive (or wherever you want). You can use ANY backup tools here.

7. On an existing VM, create a 2nd HD (dont forget to make it big enough to receive the image), initialize and format the drive when you get into windows, and copy the image file into it. Shut down the VM and remove the drive.

8. Create the NEW VM to receive the image of the physical machine. Add a 2nd HD using the image from Step 7. Bind the CDROM to a TI (or any other backup tool) Boot Disk ISO.

9. Start the NEW VM, boot to Acronis TI. Restore the image from the 2nd drive to the main drive of the NEW VM. NO NEED to use Universal Restore, because we preloaded the storage driver already.

10. When done restoring, shut down the NEW VM, remove the 2nd Drive and unbind the CDROM from the TI Boot CD ISO.

11. Start the NEW VM. It should boot NO PROBLEMS!!! When windows loads, it will ask to install drivers....the first one will be the VMWare SCSI Driver. When it asks for the driver file, point it to c:\WINNT\System32\Drivers. For the others, just click next > next > next ... or cancel...

12. Then you install VMWare Tools. (I picked custom here and unchecked the VMWare SCSI Driver coz its already in the system, I dont know what happens if you pick typical installation). Reboot the system when done.

13. After reboot go to Device Manager and you will see 2 VMWare SCSI Drivers, one with the yellow warning sign. Uninstall this one. Reboot one more time to be safe.

14. DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know why TI UR doesn't work for P2V (it normally works on physical to physical backup and restore to different hardware) ... but if you preload the VMWare SCSI driver on the physical machine before backup, then you dont even need to use UR during restore.

Hope it works for you.

Note: My case happens to be P2V for W2K Server. For WinXP or W2K3, some steps may be a little different. Don't know, haven't tried.