VMware Converter – How to Perform a P2V Conversion of a Windows Server 2008 R2 EFI System

gptphysical-to-virtualuefivmware-converter

As discussed elsewhere, Windows Server 2008/R2 will automatically use the EFI boot loader when installed on EFI systems, and will also automatically use the GPT partitioning scheme on such systems. And you can't do anything at all about this (other than force the system to switch to BIOS, if this is supported).

But, as documented here, VMware Converter is not going to convert GPT disks. Which is actually quite suprising, when considering that it supports EFI systems and they in turn use GPT disks… but that's it.

So, how to perform a P2V conversion on EFI/GPT Windows servers?

Best Answer

This is probably too late to be of any use to Massimo, but i thought i would mention that i managed to get this to work, admittedly through a somewhat forced procedure:

  • Enable the LSI Logic SAS driver on the original server
  • Copy the raw drive via dd from a Linux live CD
  • Convert the GPT to a hybrid MBR/GPT using GPT fdisk
  • Boot the VM from the Windows DVD
  • Reload the MBR, boot block, and Windows boot directory using bootrec.exe and startrep.exe.
  • Boot the Windows VM, add VMware tools, possibly switch to paravirtual NIC & SCSI drivers

Here's my write-up of the process: http://libertysys.com.au/blog/p2v-of-windows-server-2008-from-efi-gpt-to-vmware-mbr

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