How to remove VMware Fusion 1.1 completely + get HDD space back?

[GloStix]

It's not that I don't like VMware it's that I don't need it taking up my HDD space.

I saw the older post about how to remove it but it didn't really answer my question..

If I trash my VMware from the Apps flder and the VirtualDesktops from the documents folder..

Will it automatically allocate the space it used when installing Windows XP taking 20gigs of my HDD?

Or do i have to download some program to allocate it back?

Sooo confused... No uninstaller >.<

[admin · Accepted solution]

Fusion's uninstaller is part of the disk image from which you originally installed Fusion. It is shown to the right of and below the installer.

Running the uninstaller does not delete your virtual machines -- in other words, it doesn't reclaim any space from your installation of Windows XP into a VM under Fusion. If you want to permanently get rid of your virtual machines, delete the "Virtual Machines" subdirectory of your "Documents" directory.

One more possibility: if you originally installed Windows as a Boot Camp partition, neither of those two steps reclaims the space. You'll need to use Apple's Boot Camp Assistant utility (which is a part of Leopard) to reclaim that space.

Message was edited by: brianriceca to mention Boot Camp

[GloStix]

Oh yea! Just remember about that, thanx.

The virtual OS folder wasonly 6gb does that mean there is 14gb of un-allocated space?

Or did VMware even partition the drive in the first place? or did it just set that folder to limit at 20gb...

Confused >.<

[admin]

The virtual OS folder wasonly 6gb does that mean there is 14gb of un-allocated space?

Or did VMware even partition the drive in the first place? or did it just set that folder to limit at 20gb...

VMware virtual disks are just files in your Mac OS home directory. Fusion makes Windows believe that the innards of virtual disk files are the contents of hard drives.

(The only time the word "partition" is appropriate in a Fusion context is when you previously installed Windows using Boot Camp Assistant, so that your Mac could boot into either Mac OS or Windows. As a convenience, Fusion lets you use your Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine while Mac OS is running. In this case, your Mac's hard disk really is partitioned, but it was Boot Camp Assistant, not Fusion, that did so.)

When you built your virtual machine, you told Fusion to tell Windows that its disk's size was 20 GB. But, by default, Fusion does not allocate all 20 GB up front. Instead, it only allocates space as Windows needs it. The files that make up your virtual disk grow as needed, up to the limit you chose.

[GloStix]

Wow this program is engineered perfectly!

Thank so much for explaining it to me.

You are a great help ^_____

[Silverado]

Hi,

I followed these instructions and used the installer and it removed the application. However, I still see many vmnet messages during startup making it look like vmware wasn't fully removed and vmnet is still being set up at boot time (adding about 12 seconds to start time). How can you remove vmware fusion and all traces of the vmnet setup?

Thank you.

[WoodyZ]

Note: Uninstalling Fusion does not delete the Virtual Machine's as they are stored in a different location.

To uninstall VMware Fusion...

Shutdown, not suspend, any running Virtual Machines.

Close VMware Fusion (VMware Fusion menu > Quit VMware Fusion).

Uninstall VMware Fusion (Execute /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Uninstall VMware Fusion or run the uninstaller from the .dmg you downloaded.).

Delete the following File(s) and or Folder(s) if they remain.

/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion

/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vmware.launchd.vmware.plist

/Library/Receipts/Install VMware Fusion.pkg

Note: ~ is your Home Folder.

~/Library/Preferences/com.vmware.fusion.plist

~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion