Converting the 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine into a VMWare Virtual Machine.

You will need StarWind V2V converter and a Windows 7 Repair CD in addition to the 2010 Information Worker Demonstration and Evaluation Virtual Machine.

Download the 2010 Information Worker VM from the Microsoft Download Center and unpack the rar files into a folder.

2010 Information Worker Files.png

First thing to do is to convert the virtual image from a vhd into vmx. StarWind Software V2V Image Converter is a free utility that will do this conversion.

StarWind V2V Image Converter.png

Click Next to begin the conversion

StarWind V2V Source Image Dialog Window.png

Select the VHD to convert

Information Worker Files.png

StarWind V2V Source Image.png

Select VMWare growable image otherwise. The pre-Allocated image option will create a fixed size 127G

StarWind V2V Growable Image.png

Select SCSI Disk Type

StarWind V2V SCSI Type.png

Select the output destination for the VMX virtual drive.

StarWind Image Converter Destination.png

Depending on the hardware the conversion will take several minutes

StarWind V2V Conversion in Progress.png

At the end of the process the VMWare virtual disk will be created.

2010 Information Worker VMDK.png

Create a new VMWare virtual machine.  For this example Workstation 6.5 is being used but Fusion 3.0 Workstation 7.0 and VMWare Server has been used as well

VMWare New VM Wizard.png

VMWare VM Hardware Compatibility.png

Do not install an operating system on the new VMWare Virtual Machine

VMWare Guest Operating System Installation.png

Choose Windows Server 2008 x64 Edition.

VMWare Windows 2008 Guest.png

Give your virtual machine a name and location where to store it.

Select the number of processors.

VMWare Processor Configuration.png

Chose the amount of memory you want to assign to the new VMWare Virtual Machine. Anywhere from 2G to a max of 8G.

VMWare New Machine Memory Configuration.png

VMWare New VM Network Type.png

Choose SCSI Adapter

VMWare new VM IO Adapter.png

When selecting a disk choose the existing virtual disk option.

VMWare New VM Select Disk.png

Browse to to the Information Worker Virtual machine. There are two of them 2010-7a and 20107-7b.  This procedure will need to be executed for each one of them.

VMWare new VM Browse Existing Disk Wizard.png

Select the Virtual Hard Drive to be converted into a VMWare Virtual Machine.

VMWare New VM Existing Disk.png

Either  format will work.

VMWorkstation conversion to new format.png

Any additional hardware configuration settings can be made here if needed, otherwise finish the creation of the new VMWare Virtual Machine.

VMWare New VM Confirmation.png

Do not start the new Virtual Machine just yet. We need to make some registry modifications otherwise it will freeze on boot.

I normally go to File -> Boot from BIOS and disable the serial and parallel ports for performance purposes. I also change the booting option to first boot from CD. This makes it easier to boot into the Windows 7 repair disk  CD so that I can load the registry and make the necessary change.

VMWare Windows 2008 Server Guest.png

VMWare VM BIOS Survival Port.png

I like to disable Diskette A and B on my Virtual Machines.

VMWare VM Bios Legacy Diskettes.png

VMWare VM Bios Legacy Diskettes Disabled.png

I also disable the Serial Ports and the floppy disk controller.

VMWare VM Bios Floppy disk controller Disabled.png

Press F10 and save the configuration, but before you exit make sure the Windows 7 Repair CD is on your DVD drive otherwise the VMWare machine will want to start from the hard drive and will get a 7B BSOD

VMWare VM Save BIOS.png

Exit the BIOS setup and allow your new VMWare  virtual machine to boot from the CD.

VMWare VM Bios Boot Order.png

When prompted press any key to boot from CD… do not allow it to boot from the hard drive.

VMWare New VM Booting from CD.png

Choose your Windows 7 language.

VMWare New VM Booting from Win7 CD.png

Select your Windows Server 2008 R2 for repairing.

VMWare New VM Recovery Options.png

This screen will just flash for a second since there are nothing to repair at this point and proceed with the ‘Choose a recovery tool’ dialog window.

VMWare Win7 Recovery Disk Setup repair.png

In the System Recovery Options window select Command Prompt

VMWare Win7 System Recovery Options.png

From the DOS prompt launch the registry editor

regedit.png

Select the HKEY Local Machine and click on Menu -> File -> Load Hive

VMWare New VM Registry.png

Navigate to WindowsSystem32 but DO NOT choose the Boot (X:) drive.

That drive belongs to your Windows7.

Select the C:WidowsSystem32 of the Virtual Machine.

VMWare New VM CD Boot Registry.png

VMWare New VM System Registry File.png

In the pop up prompt type p2v

VMWare New VM Load Hive.png

Navigate to ControlSet001/Services/LSI_SAS

VMWare New VM LSI_SAS Key.png

VMWare New VM LSI_SAS Type Key.png

Modify the Type  value to 0

VMWare New VM LSI_SAS Type New Value.png

Go to File -> Unload Hive

VMWare New VM Unload Hive.png

Click on the Yes button to confirm your update.

VMWare New VM Unload Hive Confirmation.png

VMWare New VM Hive Unloaded.png

Close the registry window and close the DOS Window.  The Shut Down.

VMWare New VM Recovery Options 2.png

If you set up your boot order to begin with the DVD you will need to boot into the BIOS again and change it to boot from your Hard Drive now. Otherwise remove the Windows 7 recovery CD and boot normally

2010 Information Worker VMware booting up.png

Hit fn+CTRL+Option+Delete on Mac or Ctrl+Alt+Insert on Windows 7

2010 Information Worker VMware ctr alt del.png

Accept the EULA

2010 Information Worker VMware EULA.png

Enter pass@word1 for password and let the ‘Warmup’ script run before accessing the http:intranet sites.

2010 Information Worker VMware password.png

A restart of the Virtual Machine will be required after the first boot.

2010 Information Worker VMware Restart.png

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