Win XP to Win 7

Discussion in 'Paragon Partition Manager Product Line' started by Skeetboy, Mar 5, 2010.

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  1. Skeetboy

    Skeetboy Registered Member

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    I wish to move my Win XP SP3 (x86) setup into a VM on Win 7 Ult (x64).

    The XP setup is on a mirrored 320Gb array, whilst the Win 7 setup is on a mirrored 1Tb array. I am just switching the discs over in the same physical PC.

    The XP setup had a 300Gb C: drive. When I utilise dsk2vhd, Ghost or Acronis to create a VHD, it successfully runs but fails when I try to attach it to the VMM, it says that the file is too big (over 127Gb).

    So, I used PM Server 10 to shrink the C: drive down to 65Gb and re-created the VHD using the same programs, but I get exactly the same problem.

    It would appear that even though I have shrunk the C: drive, there is a setting somewhere that makes everything think that it is still the original size.

    Anyone got any ideas?
     
  2. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    The programs appear to be making a vhd of the entire, instead of just the 65 gb partition.

    Try using 7 command line to create a microft vhd of only the 65gb partition:

    From an elevated command

    wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:F: -include:C: -quiet

    Creates a vhd of C and stores it on F.
     
  3. Skeetboy

    Skeetboy Registered Member

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    Thanks for the response SIW2. Not sure how I can manage that as I am unable to have both sets of discs online simultaneously.
     
  4. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    I believe you can do the wbadmin command by booting the windows 7 recovery/installation disc to the command prompt.

    When you get to the "Install Now" screen , press shift+f10 to bring up the command prompt.

    Check the drive letters first - they may different from WinPe.

    Type:

    DISKPART

    LIS VOL

    ( find the letters for the source partition and the partition you want to save the vhd on)

    EXIT


    wbadmin start backup -backupTarget:<DRIVELLETER>: -include:<DRIVELLETER>: -quiet



    How did you make a vhd with the other programs?

    Did they appear to recognize the new source partition as only 65gb?

    What does Disk Management say is the size of the C partition?
     
    Last edited: Mar 5, 2010
  5. Skeetboy

    Skeetboy Registered Member

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    Thanks again SIW2.

    I made the VHDs using the various tools:
    dsk2vhd (tried v1.4 and v1.5) - Microsoft Sysinternals website, it generates a VHD. When the C: was actually 300Gb, it would not create the VHD.

    Norton Ghost (tried v12 and v15) - create a backup file which you then convert into a VHD from within the application. Only tried with 65Gb partition.

    Acronis (Backup & Recovery 10) - create a backup plan, select the source, which it identifies as drive C: 1volume 63.48GB, use the option to convert to VM, get an error message "Cannot create the conversion task. Microsoft Virtual PC type virtual machines support disks from 3MB to 127GB in size, the following disks are out of range: Disk 1(298.1GB)"

    Disk Management tells me that I have a single drive (Disk 0, Basic, 298.07GB Online)
    63MB FAT partition
    2.00GB NTFS partition (D: Recovery)
    63.48GB NTFS partition (C:)
    232.53GB Free space (Originally this was part of drive C:)

    Wondering if the Free Space needs changing somehow to Unallocated? Not sure I fully understand what the difference is, but might make a difference. Can this be performed via the Paragon PM software?

    Anyway, going to attempt your suggestion about using wbadmin now (or at least over the next few hours), need to find another external drive, as I think wbadmin wipes the target drive first, might be wrong though.

    Will report back.

    Edit:
    Just to clarify, from within PM 10 (Volume Explorer mode) I can see:-
    1. Array 298GB
    __1. Primary Unknown (DE) 62.7MB
    __2. Primary NTFS D: 2GB
    __3. Extended Partition 296GB
    ____1. Logical Disk NTFS C: 63.4GB
    It uses the term Unallocated in its visual representation as opposed to Free Space in the Disk Admin tools visual representation, so not sure that this is a difference anyway.
    So I think that the tools are backing up the partition rather than the C: drive, or there is a flag/setting in the C: drive that still thinks it is 296GB?
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2010
  6. Skeetboy

    Skeetboy Registered Member

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    Here is the update.
    The wbadmin command with parameters start backup are apparently not supported in the Windows Recovery Environment.

    Going to download Paragon Drive Backup 10 Workstation and see if that helps, perhaps I can copy the C: partition to a non RAID disc and perform a wbadmin under Windows 7 from that....
     
  7. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    It is because the 65 gb is a logical drive.

    The 65gb logical drive is part of the 296gb Extended partition. The apps. want to convert the whole extended partition to vhd.

    You can use Paragon to reduce the size of the Extended partition.

    In the main screen , rt click the Extended partition , select move/resize, drag from the the right edge to the left. Apply when you are happy with the changes.


    EXT-PAR-1-2010-03-06_213222.jpg

    EXT-PAR-2-2010-03-06_213415.jpg

    Hope it helps.
     
    Last edited: Mar 6, 2010
  8. Skeetboy

    Skeetboy Registered Member

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    Thanks again SIW2.
    Still not working. Virtual PC still sees it as a 300Gb drive and rejects it.

    I note that you appear to be using PM Server 2010, whereas I am using PM Server 10.0. Would this make any difference at all?
     
  9. SIW2

    SIW2 Registered Member

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    It shouldn't make any diff. The partitionioning in PM Server and HDM Server are the same.

    Does Windows Disk Management see the extended partition as 65gb , with unallocated ( not free ) space next to it?
     
  10. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    I assume you're using the P2V Copy to make the VHD file. If you're still having problems, try doing a backup of the smaller partition, boot to the new machine with a boot disk and restore the partition. Then use the P2P adjust wizard to inject any drives you may need to make it bootable.
     
  11. Skeetboy

    Skeetboy Registered Member

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    Nothing here has helped. So.
    Downloaded PM Backup Server and used the P2V function.

    This created a 65Gb VHD and as it finished it inserted all sorts of drivers into the VHD, presumably to make it bootable at the other end.

    Switched discs over (from the XP 320Gb to W7 1Tb), booted W7, copied the newly created XP VHD onto the local discs, then attached it to the VM.

    On starting the VM it gave the usual POST stuff and then attempted to boot from PXE! No amount of changing the boot order in the VMs BIOS would change this. After failing to boot from PXE it just errors.

    If I attach an ISO copy of the XP SP3 CD, I can boot the VM from that.

    If I attach the VHD that I created under XP as the 2nd Hard Drive to XP Mode, I can read and write from/to it and it is seen correctly as drive D in My Computer/Windows Explorer.
     
  12. Paragon_Tommy

    Paragon_Tommy Paragon Moderator

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    If it's not booting up by itself and requires the XP CD, use the paragon recovery WinPE CD, and run boot corrector.

    In regards to the previous problem, P2V Copy will only convert the entire hard drive (300GB) and cannot select individual partitions. If you only want to convert one partition, you can run a backup of the C drive, restore to a smaller virtual hard drive and use the P2V adjust wizard.
     
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