I tried to move a Windows 7 VM from ESXi to vSphere but as it neared completion the Converter stated that it had failed.
After a little search I found this from VMware
It described a long process of going through an OS repair mode on the original source machine and using BCDEDIT to reset the partition settings used during the boot process.
I didn’t go through the repair process but instead booted the source VM to run the three BCDEDIT commands that it lists. I was only getting success with the first one:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:
and an error regarding syntax with the other two commands:
bcdedit /set {default} device partition=C:
bcdedit /set {default} osdevice partition=C:
In the end and out of curiosity I checked the destination VM because even though it had errorred, it had still completed the conversion and was listed as a powered off VM in the Virtual Infrastructure.
Strangely it powered on and worked as normal! I can only assume that the error was some kind of registration problem as the VM functions correctly and its’ partitions are listed correctly.