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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

Could not create the virtual disk for your Boot Camp virtual machine-- for the millionth time, if you haven't noticed, VMWare.

Hmmm. is there ever going to be a fix for this? I have the retail, updated version of fusion running, and it won't allow me to create a virtual drive from my windows vista home premium bootcamp partition. I can dual boot into the bootcamp partition, and it works great. But the whole purpose of this $80 or whatever piece of software is to run vista/or other os from within mac os/or other os. Ummm, there's lots of complaints all over the net when I google this error message. Why is there no official solution posted anyware? Do I need to uninstall windows and try again? I have tried all the homebrew solutions out there (eg delete the libraries/vmware folder, etc), no go.

Hello? Are you there VMWare? Do you care? I bet it is a pretty simple solution for you software guru's and techies! Why not share a little love, and let us customers-who-spent-hard-earned-cash-during-a-recession on your product in on the secret: how does your software work?

Certainly an intriguing question, no? Or is Parallels just the way to go?

Looking forward to some sort of answer or attempt at help with this. Or not. Your call.

Regards.

System: 2009 Macbook Pro

2.9 g core2duo, 4g ram

mac os x leapord most recent

bootcamp partition ~70g with vista home premium, fully licensed

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

Note: These direction are different then what have previously been posted so read and follow through... Note: These steps assume you have a single Apple default install of Windows on a single Boot Camp partition and a single default VMware Fusion Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine (without a snapshot*) and if you have modified the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine to add additional Hard Drives either Virtual or RAW Disk then do not use these directions unless you backup the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine Package first. *Also note that Fusion 2.0.0 could accidentally have a Snapshot with the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine and it shouldn't have been allowed to, so you should check to make sure that condition does not exist as well. (With Fusion closed if the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine Package is over 1 MB in size then you could have a Snapshot in place and do not proceed with these directions.)

===

1. If Fusion is open then close it.

2. In a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) copy and paste the following command, as is, and then press Enter and it will remove the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine meta-data and the Helper Virtual Machine.

Note: This does not effect the Boot Camp partition install of Windows in that it doesn't delete it. Also be sure you copy the entire command line below, as is, from "rm" at the beginning to the " (quote) after the s in Machines.

rm -dfr "/Users/$/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines" 3. Start Fusion (/Applications/VMware Fusion) and select Boot Camp partition on the Virtual Machine Library window and then start the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine. Note: The next two events can be reversed depending on Fusion 1.x or Fusion 2.x. although it doesn't really matter as both events should occur. Next, one should see a Boot Camp partition message stating "VMware Fusion is preparing your Boot Camp partition to run as a virtual machine. This may take a few minutes. This will happen once." Next, an Authenticate dialog box appears. "VMware Fusion requires that you type your password." Enter your Name and Password then click OK. (This is necessary to unmount the Boot Camp partition for Fusion to have direct access to it.) === When the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine boots for the first time after this VMware Tools may want to or will install/update and reboot the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine. === If at any point the preparing Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine fails then... The vmware.log file from the Helper Virtual Machine will be needed so in a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) copy and paste the following command, as is, and then press Enter and it will copy the target vmware.log file to your Desktop as Helper_vmware.log and you can then archive and attach the file to a reply post. Also be sure you copy the entire command line below, as is, from "cp" at the beginning to the g in Helper_vmware.log. cp "/Users/$/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Helper/naos-1.0.vmwarevm/vmware.log" ~/Desktop/Helper_vmware.log

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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

Hi thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, it isn't working. I made sure fusion was closed, copy and pasted that entire command line, reopened fusion. What happened is that the app came up, showing the bootcamp partition in the library, as usual. Then I clicked on that, and got the same old error message. Any other suggestions (please, keeping my fingers crossed)?

Anyway, thanks, I don't know what the problem could be.






brand new 17" macbook pro

2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord

bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

I noticed one other thing: in the vmware library window, when I hover the curser over the bootcamp partition on the left (this is v. 2), there is a little star and and arrow. The arrow is for "start virtual drive as guest" or something like that. Clicking on it gives me the same error message as in the post title. Hovering over the little star produces the text: "powered off", whatever that means. As I said the bootcamp partition is a simple partition on the Mac HD physical disk. There are no other partitions or virtual drives present. I have an external usb drive that is not connected, used for time machine. Have tried this with and without it connected, btw, although it shouldn't matter either way.






brand new 17" macbook pro

2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord

bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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chas0001
Contributor
Contributor

I am having a similar problem to you ( My thread ). Fusion just wont work with my Vista Home Premium partition (64 Bit). This must be something specific to the Fusion software because when I downloaded and installed Parallels (Trial) it worked fine with my Vista Boot Camp partition. Don't really want to buy Parallels to get it working.

I did take a look at the log file and I can see that Fusion has problems mounting the NTFS partition:

*****

Mar 15 15:19:45.837: vcpu-0| VIDE: Curr CHS info cyls: 65535 heads: 1 sects: 63 lba_cap: 268435455

Mar 15 15:19:45.911: vcpu-0| Guest: mounting NTFS

Mar 15 15:19:45.957: vcpu-0| SCSI (ide0:0): SCSI-3 16-byte CDB format not supported (LUN 0).

Mar 15 15:19:45.958: vcpu-0| SCSI (ide0:0): SCSI-3 16-byte CDB format not supported (LUN 0).

Mar 15 15:19:45.958: vcpu-0| SCSI (ide0:0): SCSI-3 16-byte CDB format not supported (LUN 0).

Mar 15 15:19:45.958: vcpu-0| SCSI (ide0:0): SCSI-3 16-byte CDB format not supported (LUN 0).

Mar 15 15:19:45.958: vcpu-0| SCSI (ide0:0): SCSI-3 16-byte CDB format not supported (LUN 0).

Mar 15 15:19:45.958: vcpu-0| SCSI (ide0:0): SCSI-3 16-byte CDB format not supported (LUN 0).

Mar 15 15:19:45.958: vcpu-0| SCSI (ide0:0): SCSI-3 16-byte CDB format not supported (LUN 0).

Mar 15 15:19:45.958: vcpu-0| SCSI (ide0:0): SCSI-3 16-byte CDB format not supported (LUN 0).

Mar 15 15:19:45.962: vcpu-0| Guest: NTFS mount failed; trying FAT32

Mar 15 15:19:45.988: vcpu-0| Guest: 401 reconfig : unable to mount Windows disk as NTFS or FAT32

Mar 15 15:20:51.194: vcpu-0| PIIX4: PM Soft Off. Good-bye.

*******

Lets hope we get a fix soon!

WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

I guess you didn't read my first reply entirely since you didn't attach the log file.

If at any point the preparing Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine fails then... The vmware.log file from the Helper Virtual Machine will be needed so in a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) copy and paste the following command, as is, and then press Enter and it will copy the target vmware.log file to your Desktop as Helper_vmware.log and you can then archive and attach the file to a reply post. Also be sure you copy the entire command line below, as is, from "cp" at the beginning to the g in Helper_vmware.log.

cp "/Users/$/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Helper/naos-1.0.vmwarevm/vmware.log" ~/Desktop/Helper_vmware.log

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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

I noticed one other thing: in the vmware library window, when I hover the curser over the bootcamp partition on the left (this is v. 2), there is a little star and and arrow. The arrow is for "start virtual drive as guest" or something like that.

VMware Fusion (menu bar) > Help > VMware Fusion Help > Navigating VMware Fusion > Using the Virtual Machine Library Window

Look at: Designate a virtual machine to run when you start VMware Fusion (“favorite virtual machine”)

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chas0001
Contributor
Contributor

Please have a look at my log file as I have the same problem. It can be downloaded from this thread : http://communities.vmware.com/thread/199613

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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

I read it, forgot to mention outcome. the command turned up no log file at that location, and I did not see a log file in the library folder. I will follow up with a screen capture of my library directory tree, once I figure out how to do it. (edit: attaching image file)

cp "/Users/$/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Helper/naos-1.0.vmwarevm/vmware.log" ~/Desktop/Helper_vmware.log

cp: /Users/srmd22/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Helper/naos-1.0.vmwarevm/vmware.log: No such file or directory

seth-rosenthals-macbook-pro:~ srmd22$

Message was edited by: srmd22 --to add screen capture image

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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jim_gill
Expert
Expert

There are many things that can go wrong with a Boot Camp VM. I'll list a couple:

1) Paragon NTFS for Mac causes incompatibilities with the ntfs-3g libraries that Fusion uses to update the virtual disk. When Paragon is installed, Fusion isn't able to mount the disk, and thus the "can't create the virtual disk" problem. The only workaround we have at this time is to uninstall Paragon NTFS and restart the Mac. You may need to run Windows in Boot Camp again so Windows can repair the changes that Paragon made.

2) If your Windows registry doesn't have sufficient free space, Fusion isn't able to apply the updates for the drivers needed to boot as a virtual machine. If you search the forums for a post from me with "bootcamp.reg" or "bootcamp.reg.zip" as an attachment, you'll find instructions and a registry script that can be applied from within Boot Camp. Windows itself has no problem making additional free space available in the registry.

srmd22, I'll work with you to get it running, and I sympathize with your frustration. I see you couldn't get the naos-1.0.vmwarem/vmware.log file, so let's start from scratch:

a) reboot into Boot Camp so Windows is all clean. If you can spare the time, right-click on drive C:, choose Tools, and select "check disk for errors". Windows will tell you that it will check on the next startup, so you'll have to reboot Windows to finish the cleanup.

b) On the Mac, delete the folder /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines. Leave the part through "/Library/Application Support./VMware Fusion" in place; just delete the Virtual Machines subfolder and anything in it. These folders contain nothing that can't be recreated by Fusion. Note: the tilde "~" refers to your home folder, if the notation is unusual to you.

c) Try once more t have Fusion run your Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine, get the log file ~/Library/Application Support./Virtual Machines/Helper/naos-1.0.vmwarevm/vmware.log and post it back. I can usually tell from this logfile what the problem is. If after following these steps you still don't have this file, there's an installation problem, but even that can be worked around.

WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

b) On the Mac, delete the folder /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines. Leave the part through "/Library/Application Support./VMware Fusion" in place; just delete the Virtual Machines subfolder and anything in it. These folders contain nothing that can't be recreated by Fusion. Note: the tilde "~" refers to your home folder, if the notation is unusual to you.

I have to take issue with telling people to just delete the ~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines folded without appropriate warnings and I'm guilty of that in the past myself however I've stopped telling people to delete the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine without the warning as in my original post in this thread and I believe under the circumstances with Fusion 2.0.0 being able to have a Snapshot in place when it shouldn't and not knowing if a User has added a Virtual Hard Drive to the Boot Camp partition Virtual Machine or created a second Raw Disk mapping or not and that it is negligent to to tell someone to take an action such as this without either providing appropriate warnings or at least knowing the actual state of the Users system before telling someone to delete this.

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jim_gill
Expert
Expert

Point taken, WoodyZ, thanks. You are right.

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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

jim.gill:

Was out of town, just got back. I am going to try out your suggestions, probably won't get to it until tomorrow (work,you know). Thank you so much for your help. If I get the log file I will post it, and pm you, if not, I'll let you know.

brand new 17" macbook pro

2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord

bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

Well, I was away from this issue for awhile, because I got sick of it, and had other things to do. I have come back to it, for one last attempt, since booting into bootcamp is tedious when I only need to quickly access a windows app for a short time. Plus, whatever anyone says, bootcamp does NOT run windows as well as a native PC does-- the drivers just are not there for the macbook.

Despite rereading all the earlier posts, and following all the instructions, it is a no go. I deleted fusion and reinstalled. Then I went through the above suggestions. Now I cannot even find the log file, or the vmware folder it is in. I then deleted the app again, and downloaded the trial of version 3. Same exact problem, with a slightly different interface.

This program is a bitter disappointment and a waste of money. I should have used the trial first. I am on my way to check out the trial of parallels.

Warning to all who read this thread: stay away from all VMware products.






brand new 17" macbook pro

2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord

bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

I suspect that the first potential problem, regarding paragon NTFS is the problem, based on the other gentleman's observation, and the fact that none of the other fixes are working. I am a bit worried about uninstalling paragon ntfs, because I don't understand it's role in the operating system, but I may give it a try (no guts no glory).

My latest error messages remain the same:

-


brand new 17" macbook pro

2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord

bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

Well, I mucked around a bit more, and I tried your (jim.gill) registry fix for free space, but no change. I also realized that Paragon NTFS is a specific software program, and I have never purchased or installed it, so I guess that is not the issue after all. Perhaps it is a separate NTFS issue, I don't know. I guess I am stuck bootcamping it. Smiley Sad

brand new 17" macbook pro

2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord

bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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mudaltsov
Expert
Expert

We have just recently determined one easily reproducible cause for this error, which a lot of users may be hitting.

If you use Boot Camp Assitant to create a Windows partition, it will be created as FAT32. During Windows installation, you will have to either re-format the partition as NTFS, or delete the partition and re-create a new one. Formatting the partition is fine - it stays at the same starting sector, and it will stay readable by both Windows and OS X (and by Fusion as well).

However, if you delete and create a new partition, it will start at a different sector on the disk. This is because OS X leaves 128 MB or space between partitions while Windows doesn't. A bigger problem is that Windows will only update the MBR copy of the partition table, and OS X will still use the GPT partition table. This will make OS X unable to see the real Windows partition since it would be looking at the old starting sector, not the new one.

When creating the virtual disk for the Boot Camp partition, rawdiskCreator (used by Fusion) tries to match the starting sector of the partition from the MBR with a partition device such as /dev/disk0s3 (which OS X provides based on information from the GPT). Since the MBR and GPT don't match, the appropriate partition device won't be found, and virtual disk creation will fail.


It's pretty simple to check if you're hitting the mis-matched MBR and GPT problem - run Disk Utility, and see if you're able to mount and unmount the Windows partition correctly. If you can't, it's most likely because of the mis-match.

You can also use the following commands to get listings of the GPT and MBR partition tables, as well as how rawdiskCreator reads the MBR partition table:

sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk0
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator print /dev/disk0

Please post the output of those commands, enclosed in tags to avoid forum formatting. Seeing the partition information will help confirm the problem, or determine that it's being caused by something else.

Note: If you have multiple hard drives, you may need to change the disk number accordingly (you can get it using Info in Disk Utility).


Unfortunately it's not very easy to fix mis-matched MBR and GPT entries. It's definitely possible, but it involves editing the partition tables, which may result in losing all partition information in the worst case.

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MDIUCC
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks WoodyZ

This worked for me

I have a MacBookPro Snowleopard with a win7 bootcamp with the similar problem, I use vmware 3

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srmd22
Contributor
Contributor

I gave up and decided vmware was just a rip off. Who would sell software that didn't perform the only function it is advertised for? All this bs about fat and ntfs partitions is nonsense. It should work as advertised. What a waste of money.

Where can one obtain Vmware 3, and can a free copy be had? I hate to blow any more money on a this company. As of now I have a paid for copy of VMware on my Macbook that doesn't work, and I have to just boot into windows to work in that operating system.

If I can find a version of VMware 3, though, I will try it.

brand new 17" macbook pro

2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord

bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium

brand new 17" macbook pro 2.9gig, 4g ram mac os x leapord bootcamp partition ~70g, vista home premium
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stoutr
Contributor
Contributor

srmd22 - Don't bother with VM3. I have the same issue and have tried all the ntfs, fat, clean windows boot, etc... in all these forum discussions. No help. Upgraded to VM3 thinking this might help and basically threw money out the window.

I saw that someone fixed this by downloading Parallels demo and installing it. After installing Parallels, he said VM worked. Well, that didn't work for me either but Parallels runs just fine. I hate to move to Parallels because it is an inferior product and seems to run slower, but if it works and VM doesn't...

I posted 2 days ago and no reply from VMware. Great support....

Let me know if you ever get a fix

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