Adding Second Internal HD

[sanjac]

Hello,

I have a Mac Pro with four internal HDs.  Two are set up for my Mac OS (Primary and Backup) and two for Windows 7 (again - Primary and Backup).  I have my Windows 7 primary HD set up to run through boot camp (starting my computer in Windows) or through Fusion 4.1.0.

The problem is I can't seem to get Fusion to recognize the second (backup) physical internal hard drive.  I can't get it through drive mapping and I can't get it through Fusion's "Add a Drive" option.  I can only add new virtual drives, not physical drives.  I've reviewed all the recent information I found through searches on these forums with no luck.

Can anyone address how to do this?  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Jim

[SvenGus]

This link looks interesting:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/126567

... and also this one:

http://andrewfarley.com/mac/raw-disks-from-vmware-fusion

In general, if you search for "vmware fusion raw disk" or "vmware fusion physical disk" on Google, there are some interesting results.

So, essentially, you must use the vmware-rawdiskCreator command-line utility, which also involves using the Terminal; only remember that now, in Fusion 4, the raw disk creator is in this position:

/Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-rawdiskCreator

(everything is now directly inside the application bundle, instead of in /Library/Application\ Support).

With complete disk drives (not partitions), one should probably also use the fullDevice parameter.

In theory, this quick procedure (a mix of GUI and command-line) should work (shut down the VM first):

1. Add a new virtual hard disk from within the Boot Camp VM settings (it should be Add Device... ---> New Hard Disk) of IDE type (the size doesn't matter, and probably it shouldn't be of the split type), and save it - with a NameOfVMDK.vmdk name of your choice - inside your Boot Camp VM bundle (it should be the default position in the save dialog); close the VM settings and quit Fusion.

2. In the Terminal, type this command:

$ /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-rawdiskCreator create /dev/diskX fullDevice ./Desktop/NameOfVMDK ide

... which will create the new .vmdk file on your Desktop.

3. Copy the newly created .vmdk into your Boot Camp VM bundle, thus overwriting the existing one (which was created from within the VM settings).

4. Open Fusion and the VM settings again and verify that the new IDE virtual disk now has the size of your real added hard disk.

5. Power on the VM and hope that everything works well! :smileygrin:

If there are any mistakes (quite likely): more experienced users in this field, please correct them (for example, can SCSI - lsilogic - be faster than IDE?)...

Anyway, I just tested all this in an ordinary (not Boot Camp) Windows 7 VM with an HFS+ external USB/FireWire drive: and it worked, appearing in both Windows Explorer and Disk Management; so, at least in theory, it should work also for a Boot Camp VM and an internal NTFS hard drive... :smileycool:

[sanjac]

Thanks, Sven.  I will try this out tonight or tomorrow.  If it works, I'll let you know (and mark your response as the corect answer).

Jim

[SvenGus]

The X in diskX, of course, here should be your Windows backup drive's disk identifier (available from a get info in Disk Utility): for example, disk3 or similar.

And (here shown with backslashes, for use in the Terminal), the NameOfVMDK could be something like, for example, Boot\ Camp\ Backup or Windows\ 7\ Backup, and so on...

[sanjac]

Awesome, Sven.  THANK YOU!  Your procedures worked flawlessy with Lion (OS 10.7) and Fusion 4.1.  I've been dealing with this issue for some time now through Fusion.  Hopefully, in future releases they will integrate the features to allow for adding an entire disk as a second drive within the Virtual Machine.

r/Jim

If anyone is looking at how to do this, of all the procedures found on the Internet, this is the best, easiest way to do it with the new Fusion and Lion.

[SvenGus]

BTW, I verified that all this works also if you make the added hard drive of SCSI type (in step 1, inside the VM settings); in which case the related Terminal command would be:

$ /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-rawdiskCreator create /dev/diskX fullDevice ./Desktop/NameOfVMDK lsilogic

(but I don't know if there would be any real performance advantages by choosing SCSI; and maybe it's better with IDE for Boot Camp drives).

The only downside is that you are asked for an admin password when you power on the VM, in order to unmount the added disk from the host system: but maybe this can be avoided for Boot Camp VMs (don't remember)...

[SvenGus]

... Yes, here is an article on Boot Camp VMs:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=101461...

... where they also talk about the password request.

[SvenGus]

I forgot one thing: if the disk numbers (diskX) change across reboots, probably all this won't work anymore; but rebooting the Mac again - or shutting down and powering on again - can maybe fix this (returning the disk numbers to the original ones).

[abbie11]

Hi some times due to some problem servicecs may not respond properly .In that case if eithere restart the service or system will  resolved the problem.

Yours, Abbie

[cobalt220]

I am attempting to setup a NAS environment with five 1TB drives. I found this thread on using the rawdiskCreator command for all five disks. I was very pleased that the feature gave me exactly what I needed, until I rebooted.

Upon reboot, the disk identifcation randomly changes and causes a major disruption. Is there a way to make the disk identification stick to a physical disk, so the system will remain happy and functional?

[SvenGus]

Yes, sadly the "variablity" of the disk identification numbers still seems to be a major problem for VMs with raw disks; and, IIRC, there have been complaints about this in the past on these forums.

[cobalt220]

Is there a way to use the UUID to connect to the proper disk, regardless of where it is assigned upon boot up?

[SvenGus]

Sadly, probably not, at the current state of things: but others on the forum (both unofficially and officially) perhaps might know better about this particular issue.

Anyway, raw disk support at the GUI level would be a very good thing for Fusion 5 (and more Workstation features would be good, in general)...

[neocodesoftware]

Thanks. This worked great!

[johnnycap]

My setup is slightly different. I am dual booting using 1 SSD for OS X Mavericks and 1 SSD for Windows 8.1. I also have a 1tb HDD formatted in ExFAT to share files between both OSs. I keep the OS, all applications, etc. on the OS, and all my actual files and user-kinda data on the HDD.

I use some software on OS X and some on Windows, but instead of reinstalling and thus, wasting disk space or getting inferior software for either os, I recently setup a Virtual Machine through VMWare Fusion 9 that directly uses my ssd that I boot into Windows 8.1 with, so whenever I'd like to integrate software from both OSs into my workflow at the same time without massive resources necessary, I can use the VM.

Everything is going as should EXCEPT I am unable to access the ExFAT HDD that I keep all my files on. This certainly messes up my workflow plan...

I tried using the methods suggested in this thread. When I used the # of the drive itself from disk utility for the terminal command, i received 2. I went through the process with this and did not work when I booted up the VM. I also tried using the # of the only partition on the HDD where the files are actually stored, 2s2... when I tried this for the terminal command, I couldn't go on because resource was in use. My assumption is this is because I use the drive for storage in both OSs, including OS X.

Could someone help me figure this out? Please respond ASAP. Thanks in advance!

[SvenGus]

Did you use the fullDevice parameter in the commands above...?

[SvenGus]

Any news...? Did it work?

[wila]

Hello Johnnycab

Unless I'm misreading it, what you are trying to do is technically impossible.

You cannot mount a partition by 2 operating systems at the same time.

Only one operating system can mount a exFAT partition and that OS must be in control at all times, if it is not then you will get data corruption. The only way to give another operating system access to that same partition is by setting up file and/or network sharing.

This is not a limitation of VMware Fusion, it is possible to have a guest OS directly access your disk.

If you want your guest to give direct access to the RAW partition then at least the whole partition must be owned by that guest OS.

IIRC then the limitation is even a bit more strict in that the whole disk drive must be owned by the guest OS.

hope this helps,

--

Wil