How to migrate a Windows-based virtual machine to/from Virtualization Station?

As the activation mechanisms and system architecture is firmly consolidated with the actual hardware, there are some pre-actions required before migrating an existing Windows operating systems.

Windows memorizes the IDE or SATA controller which was installed at the beginning and will not boot if the controller has changed. You can use MergeIDE (a utility from c't, a German computer magazine) to modify the Windows registry in order to bypass the controller checks.

You can follow the below steps to migrate the VM. We will use “VMware Workstation” as a demonstration.

Notice: The *.ovf formats are only supported by VMs (virtual machine) exported from VirtualBox v4, VMware Workstation 8/9/10 and ESXi 5.0.

From VMware Workstation to Virtualization Station

1. Take a snapshot
   Launch VMware Workstation, go to "VM" > "Snapshot" > "Take Snapshot…".
   
   Name the snapshot and add a description if needed, then click "Take Snapshot".
   
2. Remove VM Tools - VMware only (if you have already installed the VM Tools, you need to remove it first.)
   Click "Start" and choose "Control Panel".
   
   Click "Uninstall a program".
   
   Select "VMware Tools" and click "Uninstall".
   
   Click "Yes" to uninstall.
   
   Click "Yes" to restart the VM.
   
3. Download MergeIDE and execute "MergeIDE.bat" file in the VM
   Click on the below link to download: https://download.qnap.com/Storage/Others/Virtualization_Station/MergeIDE.zip
   Extract the file, and double-click "MergeIDE.reg" file in the VM.
   
   Click "Yes" to add MergeIDE.reg.
   
   Click "OK" to finish.
   
4. After MergeIDE is installed, shutdown the VM
5. Export the VM to OVF file format
   Go to “File” and select “Export to OVF…”.
   
6. Revert to the earlier snapshot (optional)
   Go to "VM" and select "Snapshot" > "Revert to Snapshot".
   
   Click "Yes" to confirm.
   
7. Import the VM to Virtualization Station
   Please refer to the following tutorial: http://www.qnap.com/en/trade_teach/con_show.php?op=showone&cid=111#A

From Virtualization Station to VMware Workstation

It is also effective for migrating the VM from Virtualization Station to other hypervisors such as VMware and VirtualBox.

1. Take a snapshot
   You can go to VM information page and click "Snapshot"
   
   Name the snapshot and add a description if needed, then click "Create".
   
2. Download MergeIDE and execute the .bat file
   Click on the below link to download: https://download.qnap.com/Storage/Others/Virtualization_Station/MergeIDE.zip
   Extract the file, and double-click "MergeIDE.reg" file in the VM.
   
   Click "Yes" to add MergeIDE.reg.
   
   Click "OK" to finish.
   
3. After MergeIDE is installed, shutdown the VM.
4. Export the VM to OVF file format
   Please refer to the following tutorial: https://www.qnap.com/en/trade_teach/con_show.php?op=showone&cid=111#B
5. Revert to the earlier snapshot (optional)
   If you want to use the original VM, please click “Snapshot” and then click “Revert”. The VM will go revert the system to the previous snapshot.
   
6. Import the VM to VMware Workstation
   Launch VMware Workstation and click “File”. Select “Open…” and select the exported VM to import it.
   

Reference
VirtualBox. How to migrate existing Windows installations to VirtualBox. Available: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Migrate_Windows. Last accessed 6th Jan 2015.