Why?

If you want to convert a VMware Windows XP VMDK over to something like KVM there is a weird step to convert the disk controller interface over to IDE.

Mergeide

To do so is fairly simple as a matter of running MergeIDE on the machine. You may either download/copy the registry file over. But for future use you may want to create a small floppy image with the files already on it.

Download Merge IDE

You will first need to obtain MergeIDE.

1. Download MergeIDE $ wget http://www.virtualbox.org/attachment/wiki/Migrate_Windows/MergeIDE.zip

Create Floppy Image

We create a small floppy image and copy the contents of MergeIDE on to it. This allows us to attach it to our virtual machine later.

1. Create floppy image $ mkfs.msdos -C MergeIDE.img 1440

   Note: mkfs.msdos needs to be installed. If you run Arch Linux it is part of the dosfstools package

2. Mount the MergeIDE.img Floppy image $ sudo mount -o loop MergeIDE.img /mnt
3. Copy the MergeIDE folder over to the floppy $ cd /mnt && sudo unzip <path to MergeIDE.zip> && cd -
4. The contents from the zip file should be on the floppy image now.
5. unmount floppy $ sudo umount /mnt

Run MergeIDE

1. Attach the floppy image to the Windows XP image and boot. $ qemu-system-x86_64 --enable-kvm -m 2048 -hda WINXP.qcow2 -fda MergeIDE.img
2. Once it has booted. Login
3. Start a command prompt Start => Run => cmd

4. Merge the registry file

   A: reg import MergeIDE.reg

Reboot

You should just reboot now.

Done

Hope that helps.

Questions/Comments/Praises can be sent to me at joe@unicornclouds.com