Issue:
When using Converter Standalone 4.0.1 and converting a Windows 2000 Server, the conversion may fail at 95% with one (or more) of the following errors.
A general system error occurred: InternalError, Error: Reconfiguration failed
Error 3 (error loading hive: The system cannot find the path specified (3))
Error reading boot.ini file
Error 1450 (error loading hive: Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service (1450)) loading temporary hive
Unable to load registry hive
Can't access guest SYSTEM registry, error 50
Cause:
The physical drives were successfully byte copied to the virtual machine, but the reconfiguration of the drives failed because the physical computer’s lack of resources (memory, CPU, network, etc).
This is a common issue on old hardware with limited memory and/or other resources, because the physical computer remotely accesses the virtual machine hard drives to perform the reconfiguration.
Solution:
Because the reconfiguration phase is separate from the cloning phase, this step can be performed by another computer running the appropriate software.
Method 1
1) Install the vConverter software to another computer (physical or virtual)
2) Click the Configure Machine button to launch the wizard
a. Machine Type
i. VMWare Infrastructure virtual machine
ii. Type the vCenter server name, username and password
iii. Click Next
b. Machine Name
i. Select the virtual machine that failed reconfiguration
ii. Click Next
c. Options
i. Select Reconfigure destination virtual machine
ii. Optional: Select Install VMWare Tools
iii. Click Next
d. Ready to Complete
i. Review summary
ii. Click Finish
Method 2
If you have the VMWare Converter Enterprise installed and enabled in your VI Client you can right click the failed virtual machine and select Reconfigure.
More Information:
A P2V is comprised of three main phases
1) Creation of the virtual machine
2) Byte cloning of the physical hard drives to the virtual machine
3) Reconfiguration of the physical hard drives to support the virtual machine.
The last phase is the most important because in this phase the information in the hard drives is edited to allow the VM to boot and load the proper drivers (SCSI, Video, Network, etc). If a failure occurs during the last stage the virtual machine can be reconfigured from any other computer.
Investigating network devices and device settings as a cause of VMware Converter failures
Best practices for using and troubleshooting VMware Converter
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1013547