Can't boot what looks like a clean True Image transfer

I bought a new computer with Vista and would like to migrate my older Windows XP system to a VM there. I've installed the latest Parallels Workstation. I tried using Transporter with some problems (BSOD 0x0000007b) and I've posted over there about that particular problem.

This post is about using a method using Acronis True Image 8.0. I've seen that others have used it and similar methods. Here's a summary of what I've done.

1) booted the old PC from a BartPE CD that had True Image on it and created an image onto a second hard drive
2) on new Vista PC under Parallels created a new Windows XP VM with a hard drive larger than my old one (I did make it expandable and this may be a mistake).
3) booted that new VM using the same BartPE CD and restored my image across the network to the VM.
4) tried to boot VM and it checks memory then just hangs during POST. No new messages are reported

If I boot that CD again I can look at the C drive and all the files are there and seem fine. In contrast to the Transporter method where the filesystem didn't seem to survive the transition and appears as an unknown partition.

Possible things to try next:
- An NT equivalent of "sys c:\" that we used to use under DOS might fix the problem.
- Repair install of XP
- Everything as above except create the disk as non-expanding
- a boot floppy with a modified boot.ini ?

Before I spend a couple more hours trying this out can someone recommend the best alternative listed above or some other method.

 

I've got it working now. Here's what I did:

1) Boot VM from BartPE CD and moved the \Windows, \Documents and Settings and the \System Volume Information directories to underneath \OLDWINDOWS
2) Install a new copy of Windows on the drive leaving current filesystem intact.
3) Booted VM from BartPE CD again and moved the \Windows, \Documents and Settings and the \System Volume Information directories to underneath \NEWWINDOWS
4) Next I moved all the folders under \OLDWINDOWS back to \
5) Booted XP CD and did a repair install

During the repair install a few files couldn't be found including PVSNET.SYS. This may have been because I had installed Parallels Workstation on that old machine several months ago. I pretty much ignored all the missing files dialogs. In the end everything seems to work fine.

I may have been able to skip steps 1 - 4 and I might try it again without doing that. I may go ahead and remove a bunch of virtual network adapters from the original machine - Hamachi, VMware and Parallels virtual NICs exist I believe