Migrating VMware->VirtualBox: Windows XP/2003 guest
This is a correction to my
VMware to VirtualBox migration entry.
After reading das gelimes Blauge : Windows cloning disk BSOD, I realized that VirtualBox.org site's wiki page Migrate_Windows is rather outdated. For Windows XP/2003, I made only 2 changes and they booted successfully.
- Enable IO APIC
- IDE Controller Type: PIIX4
Hello again,
This seems to work quite well, but, VirtualBox's IO APIC emulation appears to be a little fragile. It doesn't work at all with windows 2000 and seems to fail on shutdown (sometimes) with windows XP.
I would suggest it's best to replace the HAL inside the VM with the non-APIC version as soon as possible so you can disable the emulation.
ie:
Device Manager
Computer
ACPI Uniprocessor PC
Update Driver
Install from a Specific Location
I will choose the Driver
Advanced Configutation and Power Interface (ACPI) PC
Posted by Robert on April 10, 2008 at 07:57 AM JST #
Thanks Robert. I saw the Windows XP hang as well on shutdown.
Posted by Katsumi INOUE on April 17, 2008 at 11:24 AM JST #
Hello!
Thanks for the tip in the post, it saves me a lot of time!
But Robert tip doesn't work for me, if I change the ACPI Uniprocessor PC the windows presents a blue screen, even if i enable/disable the IO APIC.
Did you make it?
btw I can't suspend my guest system, did you know why?
Posted by Nuno on November 22, 2008 at 10:13 PM JST #
Nuno, thanks for reading.
No, I haven't tested Robert's steps. I heard that vmware support is actively being improved. So, I guess I'll see very different stability/performance in next version.
Posted by Katsumi INOUE on November 25, 2008 at 11:21 AM JST #
I just wanted to post a success story using Robert's advice.
I installed XP in VirtualBox with IO APIC enabled (thinking that enabling features was always a good idea) but found out that it slows down VirtualBox considerably. A little research said I had to reinstall XP to disable the feature.
Using Robert's advice:
* I replaced the device in device manager
* shut down the VM
* disabled IO APIC
* restarted the VM
* Windows found new hardware, which installed and asked me to reboot.
* rebooted the system and it appears to work fine and is very noticeably faster.
This was a 30 second solution to avoiding a Windows reinstall.
Thanks!
Posted by Brian on January 19, 2009 at 12:54 AM JST #
Also wanted to mention that this worked great on VBox 2.1.2! With the comments from Robert, the guest did speed up noticeably and was finally able to P2V a Windows host into a usable Virutal Box guest.
Thanks!
Posted by Jason on January 24, 2009 at 06:19 AM JST #
Am I the only one that it not work?
When I replace the device and disabled IO APIC the windows can't load and keeps restarting :(
If I enable IO APIC the systems works very very slow :/
Posted by Nuno Lebreiro on January 24, 2009 at 06:43 AM JST #
Posted by Let the Sunshine In on January 30, 2009 at 04:32 PM JST #
same trick (io apic) works for me with a vista machine. thanks for the tip!
matt
Posted by Matt Price on April 06, 2009 at 08:20 AM JST #