Boot Camp Partition

[jcd64]

Hi,

I noticed when using the BootCamp partition, that Fusion doesn't allow you to suspend the virtual machine.

Is it possible to "uninstall" BootCamp without removing the actual partition? If so, how?

Furthermore, would Fusion allow one to suspend the virtual machine afterwards?

Thanks.

[admin]

I noticed when using the BootCamp partition, that Fusion doesn't allow you to suspend the virtual machine.

Right. This is because if you were to suspend or snapshot the VM while it was running, then boot natively (thus changing the disk state), and then resume/restore the VM, it would probably corrupt the partition. So the default is to keep you from doing this.

Is it possible to "uninstall" BootCamp without removing the actual partition? If so, how?

Furthermore, would Fusion allow one to suspend the virtual machine afterwards?

I don't understand what you're trying to do - what do you mean by "uninstall Boot Camp"?

[jcd64]

What I was "trying" to say was if it was possible to convert a Boot Camp partition to a Non-Boot Camp partition so I could suspend it. (I don't have the need to boot directly into Boot Camp anymore with Fusion running so well.)

But after reading some posts, it looks like it would be better to convert the Boot Camp partition to a vmdk (via vmware-vdiskmanager) for enhanced performance. Is this correct?

Thanks.

[Technogeezer]

You have a couple of options on how to convert the BootCamp-based VM into a "native" VM.

The first is to run the VMware Converter - that will allow you to resize the virtual hard disk as you convert.

The other method is, as you have noted, to use vmware-vdiskmanager to copy the BootCamp partition to a vmdk file. You then create a new virtual machine and use the vmdk file as your hard drive. This, though, would be likely to create a vmdk that's got a max size of your BootCamp partition - and you'd have to be careful of the conversion options you choose lest you wind up with a single very large file on your Mac hard drive as the vmdk.

I'd prefer the former option if you have a BootCamp partition that's way too large for what you're doing - you get the conversion and shrink done in one operation.

[admin]

There's not really such a thing as a non-Boot Camp partition, at least in the way I think you mean. Fusion does not partition your drive for normal virtual machines, it uses large .vmdk files to represent the disk. If you're not using a Boot Camp (i.e. raw) partition, you're using a vmdk.

Technogeezer has already addressed Converter vs. vmware-vdiskmanager, so I won't repeat that.

Also, it's possible to enable suspend on Boot Camp virtual machines by editing the .vmx configuration file (see for location), so if that's all you want, you can do this. However, I prefer not to give more explicit directions so that only it's not completely trivial to shoot yourself in the foot; you hopefully have to do a little bit of thinking first.

[jcd64]

Etung/Technogeezer,

I understand that the main advantage of using a "vmdk harddrive" is because Fusion uses SCSI to access it. Can't one configure Fusion to use the same drivers to access a "partition harddrive"? Or is there more to it which gives the "vmdk harddrive" the edge in performance?

Thanks again.

[WoodyZ]

I understand that the main advantage of using a "vmdk harddrive" is because Fusion uses SCSI to access it. Can't one configure Fusion to use the same drivers to access a "partition harddrive"?

VMware Fusion runs on Intel Based Macs and as far as I know at the present time all Intel based Macs use SATA Hard Disks which fall under the category of IDE when used in a Virtual Machine of the Boot Camp partition and changing it to SCSI will most likely just cause a BSOD if not also corrupting something in the process.

[jcd64]

Hi WoodyZ,

So are you saying then that will be no performance gains when going to a vmdk? If that is the case, I might as well just run from a partition. That way if the Mac partition ever becomes corrupted, my "Windows harddrive" would be uneffected.

Thanks.

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

So are you saying then that will be no performance gains when going to a vmdk? If that is the case, I might as well just run from a partition. That way if the Mac partition ever becomes corrupted, my "Windows harddrive" would be uneffected.

No I didn't say any such thing! The previous comment I made in this thread had to deal with one thing and one thing only and that is the fact that when VMware creates a Virtual Machine of the Boot Camp partition the Virtual Drive Type it creates is IDE and that changing that in the Boot Camp partition.vmx file to SCSI would will most likely just cause a BSOD if not also corrupting something in the process!

Now if you want to compare the performance differences between a native Fusion Virtual Machine's which can used SCSI Virtual Disks vs the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine then there is no contest. If you took a stopwatch and run tests you would see that the native Fusion Virtual Machine performs faster than the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine. On my MBP the difference is so noticeable a stopwatch isn't even needed to see the difference.

[jcd64]

WoodyZ,

Just making sure!

Then, I guess I can achieve what I want by telling Fusion to create the "SCSI Virtual Disk" VMDK file in a separate partition (after I format it of course).

Thanks.