Error ID 3210 occurs when you perform a physical to virtual (P2V) migration in System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 on a Windows XP-based system or on a Windows Server 2003-based system

When you use the Convert Physical Server Wizard in Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 to perform a physical to virtual (P2V) migration on a Windows XP-based system or on a Windows Server 2003-based system, the job fails. Additionally, you receive the following error message:

This problem can occur if you installed Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 by using Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) 2.0 or Windows Deployment Services (WDS). When you perform an installation by using Windows PE 2.0 or WDS, the volume is formatted to use the new boot sector that is included with Windows Vista. The P2V job fails because System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 does not support P2V on Windows Vista.

To write a boot sector that is compatible with the P2V migration, follow these steps on the system that cannot perform the P2V migration:

1. Insert the Windows Vista installation media in the DVD drive.
2. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
3. Type the following commands at the command prompt. Press ENTER after each command.
   • [The drive letter for your DVD drive]:
   • cd boot
   • bootsect /nt52 c: /force
   You receive a message that resembles the following:
   Target volumes will be updated with NTLDR compatible bootcode.
   C: (\\?\Volume{da079f35-ddf6-11db-9dda-806e6f6e6963})
   Updated NTFS filesystem bootcode. The update may be unreliable since the
   volume could not be dismounted during the update: Access is denied.
   Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.
   
4. Close the Command Prompt window. Then, restart the system.
5. After you log on to the system, perform the P2V job again.
   
   Note If the Windows XP system or the Windows Server 2003 system does not have a DVD drive, copy the Bootsect.exe file from the Vista installation media to a temporary location, and then run the bootsect command that appears in step 3.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.