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I'm moving all my files from a physical Windows 2008 server to a virtual one, and was wondering if there is any way to retain my existing "previous versions" shadow copy data.

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You mean shadow copy functionality does not work on a Windows Server VM? –  mdpc Dec 19 '12 at 23:23
@mdpc, the question isn't entirely clear, but he might be asking how to migrate his shadow copy data from one computer to another? –  Zoredache Dec 19 '12 at 23:26
It does, but I want to retain my existing shadow copy data after the move. @Zoredache spot-on –  improv32 Dec 19 '12 at 23:27
Just for curiousity, why would you want to do something like that? Are you using these as a snapshot type of facility? If so, vmware implements VM snapshots. –  mdpc Dec 19 '12 at 23:28
While I have conventional backups in place, my shadow copy snapshots go back several months, and it's a very convenient interface for restoring files. It's somewhat ad-hoc, but it's easier than digging files out of an old backup. –  improv32 Dec 19 '12 at 23:31
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so, p2v is a block level copy - all of this data will come across - it has for me every time.. the only real gotchas that you might face will be that the hypervisor will see a new mac address and consider this to be a new nic. back up your nic config and reapply with the nic set to 'do not connect at startup' to avoid any potential dns issues. Once the the nic config is reapplied - dont forget to change the setting back :) your backout plan is to simply restart the physical server with the vm powered off

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