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VMware P2V Assistant 2.1


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Cloning a Disk Using a Third-Party Tool

If you are not using the P2V Assistant to create the cloned disk, you can use a third-party tool, such as Symantec Ghost or Powerquest Image Center, running in a helper virtual machine to create the cloned disk.

When you create a cloned disk using a third-party tool, there are specific requirements:

  • You must run the third party tool from within a helper virtual machine.
  • The helper virtual machine must have an attached virtual disk that is not the helper virtual machine's booting system disk.
  • You direct the third-party tool to populate the attached virtual disk.
  • If required by the third-party tool, you may need to copy the third-party tool's source file (backup, .gho or .pqi) locally to a network share, helper virtual machine, or other device accessible by your third-party tool.

    • Note: The P2V Assistant cloning feature supports a limited set of hardware configurations (a disk controller and NIC combination for the source computer). The P2V Assistant boot CD contains a file in Adobe PDF (.pdf) format that lists hardware configurations that have been successfully tested with the P2V Assistant boot CD. If the cloning functionality fails, using a third-party tool is an alternative for creating a cloned disk.

    The following is a description of the general process for creating a cloned disk using a third-party tool.

    1. Prepare the source machine as needed by the third-party tool. For example, create a network boot floppy with an appropriate NIC driver. Typically this is the AMD PCInet driver (the VMware virtual NIC driver). Insert the network boot floppy, power on the source machine, and map a network drive.

    Note: If retaining the current drive letter assignments is important to you, write them down before you create the cloned disk.

    2. Use the third-party tool to create an image file.

    With Ghost, this is the .gho file. With PowerQuest, this is the .pqi file. Create the image onto a network share.

    Refer to the technical note, Converting Ghost Image Files into Virtual Machine Disks, for additional information.

    3. From your VMware virtualization platform, add a target virtual disk to your helper virtual machine that you create on your virtualization platform.

    For information on supported virtualization platforms, refer to VMware P2V Assistant Requirements and Resources.

    4. Create a network boot floppy with AMD PCnet driver (the VMware virtual NIC), if you plan to run the image restore tool in DOS.

    Note: The helper virtual machine's guest operating system must be either Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000, or Windows NT Server 4.0, as appropriate. The guest operating system cannot be set to DOS, although per a third-party requirement, the helper virtual machine can be temporarily booted from a DOS floppy.

    5. Install the third-party tool in the helper virtual machine.

    6. Copy the image file created by the third-party tool to a network share, the helper virtual machine, or other device accessible by your third-party tool.

    This step may or may not be required depending upon the specific third-party tool and version of the tool you are using. The tool may be able to use a network accessible image file or it may require the image file is local. If you need to, use the network boot floppy and map a network share.

    7. Restore the image to the virtual disk.

    If you are using a network restore and the third-party imaging tool:

  • Boot the helper virtual machine using the network boot floppy.
  • Map network shares as necessary to access the physical image previously taken as well as the imaging tool.
  • Run the imaging tool.

    • Optionally, restore the image to the virtual disk, using either of the following:

  • An ISO image to disk restore
  • A disk to disk restore

    • Note: Typically, the third party tool requires that you run the restore in DOS mode on the helper virtual machine.

    8. If you wish to perform a system reconfiguration run the P2V Assistant from within the helper virtual machine.

    9. Prepare the restored cloned disk using either method:

  • Detach the disk and attach it to the helper virtual machine running the P2V Assistant.
  • Reboot the helper virtual machine, if the helper virtual machine you used also has P2V Assistant installed.

    • Note: Use caution with the reboot method to ensure you do not overwrite the helper virtual machine's primary booting disk.

    Refer to Reconfiguring Clones for additional information.

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