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I'm trying to virtualize the OS from our DVR running Windows 7 Embedded Standard so that I can have a copy of it in my VMWare Workstation 15. Here's the steps I took:

  • Downloaded and ran Disk2vhd on the source Windows 7 OS and created a .VHD file from disk C: on it. (Other disks were data disks D:, E:, F:, G: which I don't need.)

    enter image description here

  • Copied .vhd file to my host machine.

  • Created a new blank VM in VMWare Workstation 15, following steps outlined here. (When creating a new VM I picked "Use existing virtual disk" and selected the .VHD file that I made. It then asked me if I want to use a new format, and I picked, "yes.")

But when I'm booting to this new VM, I'm getting the following error: "Operating system not found"

enter image description here

Any idea how to make it boot?

c00000fd
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  • Does the real system by chance boot from a PXE configuration? Just copying the system drive doesn’t copy the required partitions like EFI and system reserved partition. None of the other partitions are listed. – Ramhound Feb 20 '20 at 11:28
  • @Ramhound idk. How do I find it out? – c00000fd Feb 20 '20 at 17:32
  • I assume since your using an Embedded version of Windows 7 this is in a corporate environment. If you don't know, then you need to seek out the information, from somebody who does (within your company). If you mount the .vhd image within Windows, is there a Windows installation directory, on the virtual HDD? – Ramhound Feb 20 '20 at 18:49
  • @Ramhound it's not a corporate environment. Like I said it's a standalone DVR box, originally purchased from Exacq. And yes, if I mount that `.vhd` on my Win10 desktop, I can see all the needed Win7 files: https://i.imgur.com/dhWJGnr.png It just doesn't boot in the VMWare. – c00000fd Feb 20 '20 at 21:34
  • So if you boot the physical machine, is it configured to boot from a PXE configuration, what partitions does the physical machine have? – Ramhound Feb 20 '20 at 22:22
  • @Ramhound that's what you're asking, right? https://i.imgur.com/yc3XMKu.png For some reason Disk2Vhd doesn't show that first EFI System partition. But the rest are exactly what I see there. – c00000fd Feb 20 '20 at 22:52
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/104724/discussion-between-ramhound-and-c00000fd). – Ramhound Feb 20 '20 at 22:56

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I assume you have UEFI boot. Since EFI System Partition doen't have an assigned letter, you cannot convert it with Disk2vhd without mounting. Chechk this thread for more info ß DiskToVhd generated VHD is not bootable.

For P2V conversion I'd advise starwind v2v converter, which doesn't have such issues.

batistuta09
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  • Yeah, I saw that, thanks. My concern is that I don't want to mess up that system. For instance, he suggests mounting that volume with `mountvol drive: /S` but doesn't write anything about un-mounting it. So this kinda stuff doesn't make me want to try it. – c00000fd Mar 17 '20 at 20:37