Virtualizing aging Windows 2000/ 2003 / 2008 / 2008R2 servers into Hyper-V virtual machines can be tricky, especially if the old servers are partitioned using GPT disks or Dynamic disks.
Using the following steps will get you through the virtualization process in a few hours:
– Use Microsoft’s free Disk2vhd tool to convert each partition in a VHDX file
– If the virtualized hard disk is a Dynamic Disk, or if it uses the GPT portioning scheme, it will have to be converted to a Basic Disk using a tool like AOMEI
– AOMEI can be used to convert the virtual disk to an MBR disk and also to remove unnecessary recovery partitions.
– Boot the VM from a Windows installation ISO and then press Shift+F10 to open up a Console window.
– Run the following commands to make the VHDX file bootable
- Bootrec /fixboot
- Bootrec /fixmbr
- Bootrec /scanos
- Bootrec /rebuildbcd
- BCDBoot c:\windows
If all goes well, your virtualized server should now boot without a hitch.
Don’t hesitate to contact us regarding your virtualization needs.