Migrating Virtual Server VHD to Hyper-V

This post was republished to Choyling's Blog at 12:21:02 PM 7/26/2010

Migrating Virtual Server 2005 R2 VHD to Hyper-V

Here is the sequence of migrating VPC from Virtual Server 2005 R2 to Hyper-V that I found efficient.

My VPC configuration: Windows 2003 SP1, 32 bit OS

Before plugging in the vhd to HyperV:

• Install latest Windows updates, Windows 2003 SP2 is needed in order to install Hyper-V Integration Services later.
• Install other software needed.
• Uninstall Virtual Machine Addition. Do this the last step, as the control over mouse of the VPC will be lost.
• Merge Undo disk.

After completing steps above, copy the vhd to Hyper-V box.

· Create a VM in Hyper-V, and plug the vhd to the VM in Hyper-V.

· For my case, my original VPC is non ACPI HAL, but ACPI HAL is needed to install Hyper-V Integration Services.

o The error I got is “Setup cannot upgrade the HAL in this virtual machine. Hyper-V integration services can be installed only on virtual machines with an ACPI-compatible HAL.”

o There are some posts for the error above, but none of them work for me.

§ I can’t remove the ‘Standard PC’ in Device Manager. ( http://www.k2underground.com/blogs/johnny/archive/2009/07/23/hyper-v-tips-and-tricks.aspx )

§ The trick of expand the HALACPI.DL_ from the Windows 2003 CD does not work for me. I got blue screen error after doing this. ( http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/1047782036 )

o But instead, I found a solution like this.

§ Obtain the Windows 2003 CD. It’s best to get the Windows 2003 R2 CD. i.e. this contains Windows 2003 SP2, so that you do not have to upgrade to Windows 2003 SP2 later. If you use Windows 2003 CD without SP2, you will need to upgrade to Windows SP2 before you will be able to install the Hyper-V Integrated Services.

§ Attach the Windows 2003 CD to the VM, and boot up the VM from CD.

§ Windows Setup will be started. The Setup will detect there is a previously installed Windows and prompt if you want to repair or reinstall a fresh copy of Windows. Do a repair in this case (Choose Setup (press Enter) > I agree (press F8) > Repair (press R)). See pictures below. This repair will take a while.

The upgrade will correct the HAL option for you.