Hi All,
I've used Symantec System Recovery to perform a One-time Virtual Conversion of cold-backups of a 2003 Server machine to VMDKs, created a 2003 VM and added the VMDKs to it and it starts fine.
I tried the same thing with an XP machine and then converted the SCSI VMDKs to IDE VMDKs (Symantec System Recovery for some reason created SCSI VMDKs) and then created an XP VM and added the IDE VMDKs to it. However, it wont boot. Just goes in search of DHCP network boot.
I have several working VMs (both XP and 2003) which were created from scratch.
I've converted all the system drives to type 1 (using vmware-vdiskmanager) to separate out the descriptor and loaded the first data vmdk to look for the MBR. This is what I found:
1. Existing working XP VM created from scratch has the MBR starting at the begining of address 50000h and ends at the end of 501F0h which equals 512 bytes. There is another occurrence of the MBR from begining of 53C00h to end of 53DF0h. Both of these have nothing either end of the MBR. It then has another occurence starting around 57e50h. This one has other data immediately before and after the MBR.
2. Existing working 2003 VM created from scratch does not have the first two MBRs like the above XP. Its first MBR occurs around 57e50h.
3. Converted working 2003 VM has the MBR starting at begining of 50000h and ends at end of 501F0h (like that in 1 above). It then has another MBR starting around 57E50h.
4. Converted non-working XP VM (IDE version) has the MBR starting around 57E50h.
5. Converted non-working XP VM (SCSI version) has the MBR also starting around 57E50h
The only way to get the converted XP VM to boot is to use an XP recovery disk and boot up the VM from it and run fixmbr.
Questions:
1. Where in the VMDK is the MBR meant to start?
2. Is there an easier way to fix the MBR without the use of the recovery disk.
3. Which MBR is the correct one. I've attached a zip file containing extracts of each of the above (3 for point 1 above, 1 for point 2 above, 2 for point 3 above and 1 for each of point 4 and point 5 above).
Thanks in advance for your help.
Vlad