Restore From Whs To A Vmware Virtual Machine

This may not be news but I had a lot of trouble restoring a backup to a VM because VMware player doesn't load the network drivers until the OS loads, which is a problem if you are booting from a WHS Restore CD. Here's the solution:

1. Find the .vmx file that defines your virtual machine, open it for editing in Notepad
2. Insert as a new second line:,
bios.BootDelay="5000"
3. Insert after the last of the lines that start with "ethernet0" a new line
ethernet0.virtualDev= "e1000"
4. Save the file
5. Open VMware Player, or Workstation, edit the settings to make sure that a CD is powered on at boot time.
6. Insert CD into drive
7. Play virtual machine
8. When you get the message to hit F2, click on the VM and hit Esc, this will bring up the boot device selection menu
9. Select CD and the Restore process will now see a network card.

Enjoy!

Chris