Fusion 1.1 on Mac Mini ? ? ? ?

[lugesm]

After having tried both Fusion 1.1 and Parallels 3.0 . . . . . I am very impressed with Fusion. Really a smooth implementation and interface.

Question: I am considering installing Fusion 1.1 and Windows XP on my wife's Mac-mini. This is a 1.6Ghz, Core Duo (Not Core 2 Duo) with an 60GB hard drive, running Leopard 10.5.1.

Should I expect problems with this slower processor?

What is the minimum hard disk space I should reserve for Fusion and Win-XP?

Thanks for your help.

Edited 1/19/07 to correct disk size to 60GB and to state memory as 2GB.

[SMB1]

It should work fine. As for space, that all depends on what you're doing. If I remember, the default for a new VM is 20GB.

[Technogeezer]

You didn't indicate how much RAM is in the Mini system. I wouldn't run Fusion without a minimum of 1GB of memory as you'll want at least 256MB+ for your XP vm to run decently. The more the better. Less than 1 GB and I think you'll have performance issues in both OSs due to low memory - especially if you are running PowerPC applications which require the use of the Mac OS's Rosetta technology.

[pjdxxxwa]

You may want to go to the Apple forum (of her mini type) and search Fusion to see if anyone else has done this.

I may be wrong (too many posts to remember) but I see to recall somewhere along the line that mini's (generally

speaking) did not work well.

[lugesm]

Technogeezer -

You are correct. Sorry I didn't give that number. The Mac-Mini (Core Duo @ 1.66kGHz) is running with 2GB of memory, so I am well above the number you suggest.

Also, I misstated the disk size. It is not 80GB; it is a 60GB version. I have used a little over 30GB and have about 26GB remaining. I had hoped to allocate about 10GB of disk space to Fusion and Win-XP, as I will only be running 3 fairly uncomplicated applications. None of the applications accumulate a lot of file data as used. I would expect file storage from these three apps to be less than 1GB.

[lugesm]

Technogeezer -

You are correct. Sorry I didn't give that number. The Mac-Mini (Core Duo @ 1.66kGHz) is running with 2GB of memory, so I am well above the number you suggest.

Also, I misstated the disk size. It is not 80GB; it is a 60GB version. I have used a little over 30GB and have about 26GB remaining. I had hoped to allocate about 10GB of disk space to Fusion and Win-XP, as I will only be running 3 fairly uncomplicated applications. None of the applications accumulate a lot of file data as used. I would expect file storage from these three apps to be less than 1GB.

[Technogeezer]

I'm running an XP installation on an 8GB vm with 3GB to spare after loading a few relatively small apps. So a 10GB virtual disk is doable. However, watch things like snapshot and suspending your VM which will consume additional disk space above and beyond your VM's disk allocation.

If you're running tight on disk space, you always have an option of attaching an external USB or firewire disk, and moving your VM onto that.

[lugesm]

Technogeezer -

That's an exciting suggestion. I do have an unused external HD. I was unaware that the VM could be anywhere other than the computer's main hard drive.

Do you know of an article that details the process of moving the VM to an external disk?

Thanks.

L

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

Do you know of an article that details the process of moving the VM to an external disk?

You can glean that info from my replies in the following: http://communities.vmware.com/message/843811#843811

[lugesm]

WoodyZ - - -

Thank you ! ! ! That's what I was looking for. I will definitely try that next weekend after I received my copy of Win-XP.

Regards,

L