Need help migrating old windows 2003 server to virtual
Posted by PotatoFrenzy@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 119 comments
We have a old server that is pretty much on its last leg. It constantly boots off randomly through out the day, and running anything on it will likely freeze it. Cloned the memory on a SSD gave it more RAM but in the end, if it powers off there's not much to interact with. (Looking at logs or command prompt even starts a power down)
Upgrading everything is definitely the easiest, but renewing all the apps and programs is something we're not ready to bite down on yet.
So my question is, what is the best method to virtualize our old server with only the ssd.
(Tried disk2vhd, but again it either freezes or shutsdown)
MuffinThin9542@reddit
"renewing all the apps and programs is something we're not ready to bite down on yet."
Respectfully, when is that going to be? Because this is something that should have been done a decade ago.
Failing that, it should have been done when this thing first started having problems.
You've had years to prepare for this, but you're trying to kick the can down the road again.
BlackV@reddit
Not even respectfully, op sits right in /r/shittysysadmin at this point
Glass_Call982@reddit
It's probably SBS 2003 😂
bondguy11@reddit
It always is dude
NegativePattern@reddit
In college I worked at an org that ran SBS 2003. It was everything for them. It was the DC, Exchange, app server, file server, print server. That poor box also ran some cracked timesheet software. On top of all these random USPS/FedEx utilities.
It was an interesting day whenever that box crashed or needed support from the msp. They'd send 2-3 techs to resolve whatever issue was happening. So we'd all essentially hang around on the clock waiting. I sometimes wonder if they ever fixed it.
Would be ironically funny if somehow 20+ years later, OP's org was still running SBS 2003.
StockMarketCasino@reddit
His next post is gonna be about his exchange edb going offline... 🍿
dasunsrule32@reddit
Where was the customer located? Sounds like something I inherited years ago...
Glass_Call982@reddit
Working at an MSP that bought another's client list that made their name on "value", I inherited a lot of these.
twilliamc@reddit
🤢 oh no.
CaptainZippi@reddit
I had that exact conversation about OS/2 warp server….
JerikkaDawn@reddit
Considering the condition of this physical server, P2V of the existing system is higher priority since it looks like it's going to fail any second.
galoryber@reddit
Respectfully, two decades ago.
Nerobix@reddit
Its time to say goodbye to Server 2003. Do a proper migration, everything else is just a lazy excuse.
Baselet@reddit
No it isn't. There is legacy software for which no update or substitute exists so we will need to keep these things running for years to come.
Angelworks42@reddit
You still need a strategy for moving off that. I'll bet these same companies wouldn't dream of running a logistics service using 20+ year old trucks.
The problem with keeping old apps going is that the longer you delay upgrading to something more maintainable the more it's going to cost your business to actually do the migration and I've heard of cases where these apps fail, no one knows what to do to patch or fix it and the company fails or is harmed financially.
mahsab@reddit
Umm, I got news for you ...
In general, that's not true.
If they did everything "by the book" and went from 2003 -> 2008 -> r2 -> 2012 -> r2 -> 2016 -> 2022 -> 2025 they would have done 6-7 migrations, each one having the same risks and adding new licensing costs. Any if they went by the "industry standard", they would have also P2V-ed to ESXi, getting royally screwed over by Broadcom in the process.
And all that without any guarantees still. And still it could happen that the vendor went out of business any time during those 20 years and they would have to migrate to a completely different solution anyway in the end.
altodor@reddit
There's people still using Pacific trucks and the last one they made was a special order in 1993 because, and I paraphrase "you're the parts warehouse and you have every part you'd need to build one more, I'll pay you to do that". But Pacific is probably an outlier.
desmond_koh@reddit
That's hardly ever true for a few reasons:
1) Windows is incredibly backwards compatible. Ancient software can normally be made to run on modern versions of Windows with a modicum of effort.
2) If it was financially feasible for someone to write software for your particular use-case 20 years ago then there is very likely still an solution in that category. Maybe you just don't want to pay for it, but that's bit the same thing.
Baselet@reddit
DocterDum@reddit
So are coders just less competent now than 20 years ago? Not possible to just recreate the app?
Baselet@reddit
Not a skill issue. When proprietary the tech you need is owned by someone who does not want to sell or support it you are kinda screwed. Like the control system for your factory related stuff. Not everything is an "app".
DocterDum@reddit
RobinatorWpg@reddit
Even if that is true, than you should be focusing on everything else that can move off it
neosid996@reddit
So I did this a few years ago to VMware. Had to use an older version of VMware converter to convert from 2003 Bare Metal to VMware Workstation. Then again from Workstation to Vcenter. Fortunately we decommissioned that VM last year as I never felt great about it..
Another alternative would be to use Imagex from a WinPE boot disk to capture a .wim of the whole OS partition and seperate disks (if present) then restore them to a new empty VM? Not done this myself but we did used to make .wim's of WindowsXP back in the day after Sysprep and they seemed to work?
Suaveman01@reddit
This is what happens when the helpdesk looks after the servers…
lectos1977@reddit
It is rarely IT fault. Executive decisions make stuff like this happen. It is always "IT is over exaggerating the risks."
I have a couple 2008 servers that are "mission critical" but also "too expensive to update" due to special vendor software. Been trying to get rid of them since 2015. Just $40k plus a server license to fix...... Too expensive and a waste of money! So they sit there with 1 or 2 users.....
stewie410@reddit
While we never ended up deploying the VM (and instead just deprecated it), I've been through the same at my current company.
IIRC, we ended up just pulling an image of the OS drive (
ddor otherwise), and getting as close as possible in spec in KVM -- but the license didn't stick & couldn't be re-enabled. I can only guess the change in what the OS detected as the mainboard or something invalidated the license?Our clone/VM did run fine, but it was a licensing issue in the end that forced our deprecation hand.
mdmeow445@reddit
Sometimes I doubt myself. I ask myself, am I doing enough? Am I good enough? I stress out about some IT ticket or keeping things up to date one some stupid new zero day.. Then I come across a post like this. All is well.. All is well...
Able-Course-6265@reddit
I would rebuild it on 2025. Migrate the ad services to it. Nice the files. Creates shares with same name. Then rename the old server and name the new one the old same. Repeat for the ip. Not the only way, but you end up with stability. I’m over simplifying it a tad here, but it’s probably as much work as trying to save a 2003. We still have clients hanging on yo 2003 as well, but it’s basically a huge challenge just to keep running. No new apps = poor security for starters.
plexuser35@reddit
You can try to use something like Active Disk Image to create a backup. Then boot the ISO into a hypervisor and write the captured image to a VHD
BOOZy1@reddit
If it's an old SBS server and someone started a migration to full AD (SBS is 1 server only, enforced by policy) the server will power down automatically after the grace period has been exceeded. There are however some tricks to extend this grace period infinitely.
MastodonMaliwan@reddit
Luckily support ended a decade ago. Systems architecture is important.
BookkeeperAdmirable3@reddit
LOL
Sure-Assignment3892@reddit
This OS expired more than 10 years ago, and you're not ready to bite the bullet to upgrade the apps?
Respectfully, your problems here are much bigger.
dartdoug@reddit
Some of our customers use a payroll service that is operating on Windows 2003 Server. Customers RDP into the server to make entries in batch mode not unlike filling out an 80 column punch card. It's an abomination.
I've told each of our customers that this is a ticking time bomb. Some have moved to other payroll systems, but some just refuse to move away.
Sure-Assignment3892@reddit
Not moving off of W2003 is just malpractice at this point. Particularly with payroll.
dartdoug@reddit
Absolutely agree. What's worse is that payroll processing companies can voluntarily subject themselves to an audit...SOC something or other. I asked one of our customers to request a copy of the SOC audit. The auditor's report (information was clearly never verified) stated that the payroll company only uses supported operating systems.
That was one of the customers that made a beeline to another processor. I've cited the audit report to other customers (small municipalities, BTW) and they cover their eyes and ears.
largos7289@reddit
VMWare use to have a tool for that, I don't know if they still so. Sysinternals had a disk to VHD converter that works.
Drakoolya@reddit
You have a spineless (possibly brainless) CIO/IT Director/IT Manager
desmond_koh@reddit
This is most likely a small company and OP is the "computer guy" as well as having another actual title. This kind of thing happens all the time when people view IT as an expense only.
tech2but1@reddit
I think "janitor" in this case.
Drakoolya@reddit
Yup seen plenty of these when I used to work for an MSP. IT was an afterthought but more like 99% of the time the IT manager was an absolute waste of space.
jack_hudson2001@reddit
hopefully one has a backup..
but p2v it via vmware p2v converter, starwind or veeam
YunZhaelor@reddit
Do a dd of your disk and restore it on a virtual environment?
g00nster@reddit
Take a backup and do a bare metal restore to a VM.
Thejungleboy@reddit
I discovered recently Veeam has a free windows client that’s perfect for this.
g00nster@reddit
As far as I know no versions of the veeam agent are supported for Windows 2003.
Take a time machine to 2010 and check out backup software from that era.
chuckescobar@reddit
Archive.org and you may be able to pull a Veeam Agent old enough to do a 2k3 backup.
moffetts9001@reddit
You'd need some sort of interdimensional travel appliance to route you to a plane of existence where a Veeam agent exists that supports Server 2003. Until then, you're out of luck.
chuckescobar@reddit
I have pulled old exe files off of Archive.org more than once. All depends if they cached them or not on the snapshot.
moffetts9001@reddit
Bro. There is no version of Veeam Agent that supports server 2003. Why is that so hard for you to understand?
chuckescobar@reddit
Bro I definitely got Veeam Agent 1.0 to back up a Windows 2003 workload. Supported does not always equal what has to happen in the field.
moffetts9001@reddit
Sure you did. You should dig up that magical version and give it to OP and to Veeam themselves so they can analyze it.
https://forums.veeam.com/veeam-agent-for-windows-f33/windows-2003-support-t28002.html
DepthPuzzleheaded546@reddit
Have fun trying to find a version that supports server 2003.
QuiteFatty@reddit
I think I work for them, just do it.
pangapingus@reddit
Did WS2k03 even have sysprep lol if not might have to fiddle with the vhardware
g00nster@reddit
ShadowProtect 5.2.7 will do it. Need your own license but check with ArcServe as they purchased the product years ago.
UninvestedCuriosity@reddit
Now there's a name I haven't heard in a very long time.
Mobile_Particular895@reddit
This is more urgent than you're treating it. A few specifics:
The "constantly powers off" symptom is almost certainly hardware (PSU dying, cap leakage on the motherboard, RAM that's heat-cycled past tolerance, or a SATA controller intermittently failing). It's not going to get better. You're racing the failure clock now whether you want to be or not.
The actual P2V playbook for an end-of-life Win 2003:
1) Boot to a Live CD or PE environment FIRST, image the whole disk with Macrium Reflect Free or Clonezilla to an external drive. Do this TODAY, not next week.
2) Spin up the VM in VMware Workstation Pro (free now) or Proxmox or Hyper-V from that image. Don't try to convert the live machine, disk converter tools choke on the kind of disk corruption your machine probably has.
3) Once the VM boots, snapshot it. Now you have a recoverable state.
4) Network it OFFLINE from prod until you've confirmed it works. Win 2003 on a routable network in 2026 is asking for it.
On "we're not ready to renew the apps yet": fair, but the runway just shrank to days, not months. Bare-metal restore to VM is the right move. Do it before the server doesn't come back up at all.
razaeru@reddit
Prepare 3 envelopes.
i533@reddit
If the excuse is money and it costing too much money to upgrade the apps, you need to have a candid conversation with your manager or higher or yourself.
Whatever the cost is to upgrade, times that by about 3-4 times for when you get hacked, plus the loss of your job - assuming this is a business environment - because it will be YOUR head on the chopping block.
Stanztrigger@reddit
For Disk2vhd you need a v1.x. The ones you will see now will be a v2.x and won't support XP/2003.
I found a v1.x somewhere, half a year ago.
pratofu@reddit
I thought this was in the other sub before I realised you're being serious.
When did you say you'll be ready to upgrade the applications to a supported versi...
...forget it. I don't even care.
LaxVolt@reddit
You’ll need a copy of ColdClone which was the precursor to VMware converter.
This is an offline p2v and I’ve never had it fail. It can be hard to find as VMware/broadcom doesn’t publish it anymore.
Sort-IT-Out@reddit
Enough rage and picking on the poor OP.
Do you have any linux skills? If so
*DL a copy of something around the RHEL/CentOS 7 era as I would bet that the server is a 20 year old Xeon or P4. Newer linux kernels have dropped support for many old CPU's and simply wont boot without a custom build
*Shut down the server and boot to linux, attach a large enough hard drive to store the data you are imaging or prepare an SMB share to hold it
*Install the qemu tools packages, locate the drive/s you wish to clone, ie: fdisk -l, blkid etc
*Make a mount location and mount your image store drive
[root@hell]# mkdir /mnt/my_drive
[root@hell]# mount /dev/sdf1 /mnt/my_drive
[root@hell]# mount.cifs //my_laptop/c$ /mnt/my_drive -o username=me,password=not_telling (Mount a share)
*Clone to a VMDK for vmWare workstation, server, ESXi etc
[root@hell]# qemu-img convert -p -f raw -O vmdk /dev/md0 /mnt/my_drive/2k3sbs.vmdk
*Clone to a VHDX for HyperV
[root@hell]# qemu-img convert -p -f raw -O vhdx /dev/md0 /mnt/my_drive/2k3sbs.vhdx
*Clone to a block level image (most practical for migrating to ANY other format type)
[root@hell]# qemu-img convert -p -f raw -O raw /dev/md0 /mnt/my_drive/2k3sbs.bin
*Write out the blocks in memory and un-mount the backup drive
[root@hell]# sync
[root@hell]# umount /mnt/mydrive
[root@hell]# shutdown -t 0 -h now
Great, well done, now you have a copy of your dinosaur. Now use proxmox, ESXi, virtualBox or whatever VM flavour you have a license for and spin up the VM. You may need to tinker with settings to make it boot. You may even need to use the 2K3 installer disk to rescue and inject the F6 drivers.
Alternative 2- The easy-ish way
Create a Windoze 10 installation image or a winPE depending on your skill level, write it to USB, DVD, whatever suite the server.
Create a folder called tools, Add an app like Q-Dir from portable apps
Find a copy of Symantec Ghost 11.5, specifically ghost32.exe as it has a few special tricks up its ass
Shut the dinosaur down and boot from your fresh media.
Do the 'Shift-F10' hand gesture to bring up a command prompt in the early stage of the installation.
Navigate to the 'tools' folder you create, run Q-Dir to bring up a stand-alone file explorer
Check that you can see the old 2K3 OS drive, if not you will need to install drivers
Plug in your USB hard drive to store the new image
Start another command prompt and navigate to the 'tools' folder
Run ghost32.exe and create a [L]local [D]isk to [I]mage, select the source and targets, press Ok and wait
Once completed, you can create a secondary image as a VMDK which you can use something like Starwind V2V to convert to other formats
Run the command ghost32.exe -clone,mode=restore,src=d:\2k3server.gho,dst=d:\2k3server.vmdk
Exit Windoze, unplug your USB's and go play with your fresh server VMDK image.
Alternative 3 - The stupidly complicated way - Turn the dinosaur into a SAN (temporarily)
Boot the dinosaur into Centos8 or similar using a 'live'' CD, USB etc,
Install the targetcli package
Locate your data source with the usual tools like blkid, fdisk -l, lspci etc
Bring up the network, disable the firewall
run targetcli as root
*Navigate to the backstores settings ---> cd /backstores/block
*Define the backstore with the data ---> create name=2k3 dev=/dev/sda
*Navigate to the iSCSI settings ---> cd /iscsi
*Define a WWN ---> create www=iqn.2026-05.com.dinosuar:dinosaur
*Navigate to the new TPG ---> cd /iscsi/iqn.2026-05.com.dinosaur:dinosaur/tpg1/luns
*Link the backstore to the iSCSI ---> create /backstores/block/2k3
*Navigate to the ACL to set permissions ---> cd /iscsi/iqn.2026-05.com.dinosaur:dinosaur/tpg1/acls
*Open the door to everyone ---> set attribute generate_node_acls=1
*Allow write access to everyone ---> set attribute demo_mode_write_protect=0 (DON'T DO THIS!!!)
*Exit targetcli ---> cd / then saveconfig then exit
Now go to your laptop, desktop, another Windoze dinosaur and open the iSCSI initiator (Press Windoze key and type iscsi) it should be be first thing that comes up. Press OK when it whinges about the service not running. Type the IP address of the target (2K3 box running Linux) and press Quick Connect. Your computer will connect and the old server drive/raid etc should appear in your disk manager as if it was a local installed block device. You can now interact with it using V2V, P2V, Ghost or any other tool to convert it safely as the volume is READ-ONLY.
All these methods are tested and work. Have used all of them many a time. Can do all of these with one eye closed, cat on my lap and coffee in the other hand. You can do it. PM if you need help. Good luck
bschmidt25@reddit
Shit, I’m stressing about 2016 Servers and those are still under support.
countsachot@reddit
Image level backup, restore to empty vm.
You need to get that software and OS updated, it's not feasible to protect the data, and it's essentially impossible to guarantee it's continued functionality.
The hardware is the least of the issues, assuming you've got a backup that works on modern hardware. I'll give you 25/75 odds on that. 50/50 on if the backups are even valid.
mat-ferland@reddit
I’d stop trying to run tools on the dying box. Image the SSD offline with Clonezilla or ddrescue, keep the original untouched, then do the ugly driver and boot repair work inside an isolated VM. Treat it as a bridge, not the migration plan.
TheSmashy@reddit
Dude, my daughter was born after that server was built and she's 19.
TimetravellingElf@reddit
Used this a few times, it's pretty simple
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd
jtv123@reddit
Dude literally says in his post he's already tried it and it fails.
TimetravellingElf@reddit
Ah crap. Completely missed that.
Clonezilla perhaps?
StarSlayerX@reddit
I done Veeam Agent and Bare Metal Restore to a VM.
desmond_koh@reddit
Not ready to bite down on yet?!?? When you you think that you might be ready? It's 2026. Your operating system is 23 years old.
Used Disk2Vhd from SysInternals. And if the OS will not stay running long enough to do it, put the SSD in a Windows 11 machine and run Disk2Vhd from there.
dmartin8802@reddit
If you have a backup solution like veeam you can make a backup and restore it to your virtual environment
If you don’t. Spin up a Linux machine, plug the drive into the Linux machine and use dd cmd to do a backup and use cmd qemu to turn the backup dd file to a bootable vm file
ph33rlus@reddit
You might have to deep dive it but there is a tool called VmWare something converter made by VMware and it snapshots the physical machine it’s installed on directly to a Vmx image that you can fire up on esxi or workstation.
TankMan77450@reddit
I used VMWare converter back but I don’t know if it still works. They used to have an ISO for it to boot your physical box and then target either vcenter or an ESXi host. It was removed from their website years ago. You might be able to find a copy of it on the internet. I think it was called “cold clone” or something like that
Jess_S13@reddit
I used it not too long ago and it worked great.
Negative-Cook-5958@reddit
It would work, but you still need like an esxi 5.5 target which is a mission to get up and running these days.
MickCollins@reddit
Yeah, sounds like this org is probably still on ESXi 4
qkdsm7@reddit
What's you're bare metal backup look like?
......
If you don't have one, try to make a powered-off version now.
purplemonkeymad@reddit
Yea at least it boots, the 2 years running without a boot is the worst. You have no idea if the boot drive failed and can even get a working image.
Once took a dd of a running linux machine and it turned out that copy didn't work, but also either did the original disk it was running from!
lesusisjord@reddit
Lol
TreborG2@reddit
You may need to use an older version of gparted, but the idea would be to use it to clone the drive at least twice so you have backups.
Take one of the cloned drives and try doing an in place upgrade to 2008 or 2016 server OS.
See if the in place upgrade will get you to a point to be able to p2v the drive etc.
ender-_@reddit
XP and Server 2003 are a bit of a pain to virtualise due to storage drivers. Search for mergeide, that usually helps, and if it doesn't work, I've had some luck with Drive Snapshot.
dinominant@reddit
Proxmox has virtual hardware that Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP natively supports. However, you must orepare the OS orior to the first virtual boot so it can run off the virtual IDae controller. The MergeIDR.zip from virtualbox can do this.
Then make a raw image, get it onto Proxmox, boot the VM, verify things are working, then make a backup.
You can casually change the hardware to virtio for better performance, update drivers, fix whatever else is broken from that old install, and migrste when your business is ready.
Everybody here who is saying to upgrade without offering solutions should go upgrade the firmware on their TV, washing machine, car, plant contollers, and then report back how many of those air-gapped appliances died during that totally unnecessary "upgrade". Then look up the replacement cost and lead time for their updated brick.
Kurgan_IT@reddit
I did this. I used Terabyte Image for Linux (booted from a CD) to make an image of the server. Then took that image to proxmox, converted it, and started it. After having so many issues with the "no boot device" BSOD, I managed to make it run using the emulated IDE controller. (the only one that had drivers installed in win2003).
It mostly worked, until it corrupted itself badly the first time that there was too much I/O load on the host. I then found out that the IDE driver in win2003 does not tolerate a slow response from the (virtual) disk controller. If the host is slow (running backups, for example) a disk write from the guest is simply DISCARDED, it does not wait.
So beware of win2003 guest, it might just seem to work, until it does not.
Ill-Mail-1210@reddit
Veeam community edition might pull you out of a tight spot, I would recommend if it works you get a licensed copy to then use full time in prod to keep your dr strategy up to date. I’d shut that sad thing down, then take the backup. If nothing critical/commercially sensitive you could feed the event viewer logs into copilot or similar to see if you can get an easy read on why it’s failing.
Then again, pull ya socks up and get something at least under support/current…that’s just bad practice what you have going on there. Hang your head in shame.
Thejungleboy@reddit
Came here to say this. There’s also a standalone widows agent that works like a charm.
brispower@reddit
not ready?
HumbleSpend8716@reddit
as the other ppl in here are insinuating, this should be very easy. like all you need to do is make backup of vm and restore it to vm. but you need to be able to get there.
Fuzzy_Paul@reddit
What is running on it that is so important that it forced this "still on 2003" problem? If there is no dongle on the software you can definity try to go to a brand new server with updated software. Then try to get it running by installing it manual. The VB5 and 6 runtimes install. Search for ocx files and register them on the new machine. Try to look for dependences with dependency viewer and get those too. In the end all will run. There is also a software called virtual dos and another vitual windows that can run "stone aged" software. I think this outlines enough the steps to take. Once done keep the old server and put it in a glass box for display major fuckups for the management that has not addressed this in 2008 (5 year lifetime of an OS) Anyhow good luck.
zaphod777@reddit
since it isn't staying online long enough for disk2vhd, try a clonezilla backup / restore into a VM using the boot ISO.
Pay close attention to the source and destination disks when doing the backup and restore to make sure you aren't overwriting your source disk.
https://clonezilla.org/
https://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live-doc.php
SpecialRespect7235@reddit
I let these situations work themselves out naturally. Eventually the old server dies and the business scrambles to make up for 15 years of neglect. When it happens, they either magically come up with the money that they swore that they didn't have, or decide that they don't need these ancient beasts as bad as they thought they did.
thomasmitschke@reddit
I‘v always used VMware virtual machine converter https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/389242/vmware-vcenter-converter-download.html But this is only for VMWare. But you can use https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter afterwards
CaptainSlappy357@reddit
Why don’t you just get your shit together and actually do what you should instead of fucking around with more bandaids? Y’all have been kicking the can down the road on this for 15 years.
Does literally no one in your org know how to do their job?
brokerceej@reddit
But OP said they're "just not ready to bite down on" upgrading their 23 year old operating system that hasn't been patched in a decade.
This has to be ragebait.
GX_EN@reddit
I swear to god, this post is going to give me nightmares tonight. And I migrated a couple ‘03 servers for a couple customers successfully 8 years ago. It was painful af.
We told them specifically that we will not under any circumstances guarantee ‘03 or ‘08 migrations. That counted p2v and v2v - we were going to a single Nutanix cluster. They had physical, hyperv and VMware.
n3rdyone@reddit
lol, this needs to be said more often, definitely a few of these situations at my multinational, I have to listen to the excuses and try and figure out more compensating controls because some manager wont just their job.
Original-Reaction40@reddit
Have you tried clonezilla over network to a vm. Thats what I do. Works every time.
nachodude@reddit
Same here
SUPERDAN42@reddit
For the love of god just upgrade whatever runs on this and move it over when you know it's ready. Server 2k3 has multiple nearly 10 CVSS vulnerabilities that are not patched.
cresch00@reddit
It’s been a while since I did a physical P2V, but for VMware converter, but you would not only need an older version of converter, but an older target VMware host as well. Veeam isn’t going to work on a physical 2003 server (Agent never supported that version at all).
Best option is likely as someone else said - either boot from some iso or attach the disk in some other machine, and then do an offline disk2vhd or possibly starwind converter (but I think you said installing anything is going to make it freeze)to get to a virtual disk image for a hypervisor.
Having just done a few V2V on 2003 systems just a couple days ago for the first time in a decade - to HyperV in this case - it may be challenging once you get the image (getting the right drivers installed, etc. as you’ll need to find 2003-era drivers as well for the new VM). If you can get to Hyper-V, you can use the 2012 Hyper-V tools iso to get the proper drivers. And if you do happen to go Hyper-V, do yourself a favor and disable TCP and UDP offload options in the Hyper-V nic driver (spent hours chasing this one down so that domain trust would work successfully).
discosoc@reddit
Being cheap and taking shortcuts got you into this mess. Stop.
hi-nick@reddit
Is it a single disc or an array?
vivkkrishnan2005@reddit
Do an offline disk2vhd - attach it to another system and do this for the entire disk. Then attach to the hyper v and follow with driver reinstall etc
Tombo72@reddit
I did this recently with clonezilla and proxmox. I had to do a bit of tom foolery after it initially booted to re-license the install. I actually do not remember what I did to make it work. When I get back to the office on Tuesday, I will see if I can find my notes.
yspud@reddit
hire a msp or someone to do this. if you aren't 'quite ready' for it then idk what it's gonna take - another 2 decades ?? thinking its more of a 'i have no idea how to do this' versus a 'not quite ready to do this' scenario so ya.. time to bite the bullet, rip the bandaids off and get this done properly. just find someone competent for f sake. not someones 'friend of a friend' or kid doing it on for his high school project. get a professional .
ShermansWorld@reddit
... geez, just reading some of the comments here - lots of criticism, or snide answers but no real 'get it done' answers. Sure 2003 is old and etc, etc and the apps on it etc, etc.
I get it... some legacy app(s) and no new alternatives, the company is not going to learn something new next week... and if they do, it will be different so work flows and all...
Make an upgrade plan sure, but currently, backup and clone that 2003!
Is SQL running on that thing? Is it an SBS? just curious.
ShermansWorld@reddit
Disk2VHD won't work if your 2003 has a disk larger than 2T... it will still generate, but the VHD won't work.
I've used VMware before Broadcom, their tool, vmware converter, was pretty smooth, but its target would have to be an esxi or other VMware box... regardless... best working thing for me.
Last thing that worked for me that was NOT VMware was to boot to a Clonezilla and have it 'clone' the 2003 to a Clonezilla image, (you can use an external USB or networked drive as the target for the image) then restore that image, using Clonezilla, to a VM.
For quick and dirty, I use VirtualBox. Create the Windows VM in Virtualbox, boot the VM with Clonezilla and restore from the Clonezilla image. Everything should work, you will have to get the network drivers installed (Virtualbox Extension pack, install Virtualbox tools on the 2003 VM, this will include Video and Network drivers) and you should be up and running.
Take note of your Physical 2003 MAC address(s) you may need them in the VM for your older software licensing.
nosimsol@reddit
Pull the drive, hook it up to another machine as a secondary drive that does not have issues, then disk2vhd.
Disk2vhd will work in any drive. Doesn’t have to be running.
damiankw@reddit
It's entirely possible that you're looking at this from the wrong angle, at least after doing a P2V.
Have you had a look at Device Manager in View > Show hidden devices?
With Windows 2003, once you replace hardware you REALLY need to be cautious of what is going on in the system and do clean up of drivers and old hardware. If you don't, you'll end up with a system that runs extremely slow, freezes, shuts down, bluescreens, etc. which seems a lot like what you're experiencing :P
I don't have a Windows 2003 around, but things haven't changed much in Device Manager world.
If you do not know what the device is, research it. Do not delete it unless you know what you're deleting, it SHOULD add it all back, but Windows 2003 dude, you never know!
This should also happen after you do a P2V, it's basically an essential requirement for 2003 otherwise you're going to run into a bad time.
Also look at using your backup/restore system to do your backup. If you don't have one, get one. If you have one but it doesn't provide you with a P2V option for Windows 2003, get in touch with your vendor and check if they have an old, unsupported version that does allow you to do it.
dedXlights@reddit
Try NTbackup with an external drive - https://www.msp360.com/resources/blog/windows-server-2003-image-backup/
haventmetyou@reddit
did one of these about a decade ago, I took the hdd and plugged it into a windows 7 pc and then did a disk2vhd
I rmemeber had alot of issue with hyper v and the hardware, eventually got it to work in VMware desktop
good luck!
Embarrassed-Gur7301@reddit
Disk2vhd as IDE?
numberinn@reddit
The best way to virtualize it is to move the relevant apps to a server system whose support didn't expire 20 years ago!
tylrat93@reddit
If you don’t have any sort of backup (which it very much sounds like you don’t otherwise you’d be done by now)
You better make a few hours time to shut that thing down and clone the hard drive just to have SOMETHING on hand before. If you don’t have the hardware on hand to do that, overnight it now and don’t skimp on it, do the same for anything else you’re missing such as a good high quality HDD.
With that hard drive you should be able to run Disk2VHD inside of a good PC OR mount that disk to a VM and export it that way
snoopyh42@reddit
Pull the hard drive and connect it to a USB drive adapter. Use recovery tools to image the external drive and convert to a VM.
rose_gold_glitter@reddit
I was going to say disk2vhd because I used it back in the day all the time to convert bare metal to virtual. Failing that, Windows Server Backups can be restored to a VM - but it's 2003 so you're out of luck, again.
So my next question would be why does disk2vhd fail? What do the logs say?
There's an old virtual box forum that might help you: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=94145