Greatly reduced memory usage when using new Windows XP virtual machines created with Windows Easy Install in Fusion 3.0 ?

[khe91]

From the 3.0 release notes:

"Greatly reduced memory usage when using new Windows XP virtual machines created with Windows Easy Install in Fusion 3.0."

Does this mean i have to reinstall all my 2.x XP VM's from scratch to get this greatly reduced memory usage ?

Thanks,

Karsten

[Pat_Lee]

Yes. With newly created XP VMs (as well as any existing Vista and Win7 VMs, no changes are required for Vista or Windows 7), we no longer used buffered IO which reduces the memory impact on the Mac.

We require to create a new XP VM to take advantage of this due to having to layout the disk differently from the start, which we can only do with XP on a fresh VM.

JUST TO MAKE THIS PERFECTLY CLEAR, existing Vista and Windows 7 VM do not require changes to take advantage of this. It is only Windows XP that requires you create a fresh VM

Pat

[mikel51]

Would using the import command after installing VMware3 take care of this? or would one have to do a fresh OS installation after upgrading to VMware3?

[GlennyG]

Oh joy. One of the main benefits of Fusion 3 relies on completely reinstalling everything. Hopefully I can find an XP install disk. And loads of application discs. And several hours.

It would be really nice to have a converter utility.

Question: with this new disk format, is it incompatible with VMWare for windows? One of the benefits of VMWare over Parallels is being able to take a VMWare/Windows VM and run it on the Mac and vice-versa. Is this still possible after going through the tedious windows XP re-installation process?

[NineSpot_Soluti]

Is this feature available to virtual machines that use Boot Camp partitions or only to disk images created in VMWare?

[GordonChil]

You might be able to convert by using a utility like Clonezilla. Create a new machine with a new drive... add the existing machine's drive as an extra one... then attach the clonezilla iso to the new machine and boot from the iso. You should then be able to clone the disk using disk to disk copy.

[JMandersonBM]

Two questions:

1. Would running a VMware convert on the machine make the disks what they need to be?

2. Could you run a full backup of your existing machine to disc, you create a new basic XP machine and restore the backup into it ?

[ehutzelman]

Another vote for a converter utility. Most people have hours in customizing and updating their XP installs, so a reinstall is probably not going to be worth it.

[onomatopej]

If it is just the matter of the disk image format, why not let users to convert their images?

Unfortunately Disk Shrink does not have any effect here. Tried...

VMWare please reply us, how we can migrate old disk images to the new format. For most of us reinstalling guest system is NO GO.

[pascalpp]

John Siracusa got a response from VMWare via twitter:

https://twitter.com/vmwarefusion/statuses/5264532602

[maglite]

oh deep joy. so, all this hype about Fusion 3.0 being a better product than 2.0 is predicated on me converting or rebuilding my virtual machines to take advantage of the new format. why vmware, did you not think to yourselves "hmmm, I wonder if our user base has lots of existing machines they'd like to convert?"...gee, I wonder. couldn't you have put something like a decent converter in there amongst the mix of new stuff coming out with Fusion 3.0 or at least SPELT IT OUT A BIT MORE CLEARLY. oh sorry, if you did that not many people would want to spend money on an upgrade in the droves that they obviously did as it crashed the upgrade portal.

hopefully someone will document a method that works, or (shock) vmware will release a 2.0 -> 3.0 VM converter.

[ozarkcanoer]

Guess I'll put off buying the Fusion 3.0 upgrade until VMWare provides some way to convert my XP VM, built under Fusion 1 then converted to Fusion 2, to the new optimal Fusion 3.0 format.

[msmiller]

The vmware PC2Mac migration utility is not working for me. There also does not appear to be ANY option to generate a 3.0 VM from my existing PC locally anymore.

3.0 with my 2.0.6 XP VM is actually using on average about 20% MORE memory. On top of that it is running slower. I've spent hours trying to resolve VMware Tools in the new 3.0 VM. One issue after another and what I have after a few days worth of effort is an XP VM that runs slower now than it did last week.

I made the mistake of believing the positive reviews I've read in articles, rather than looking at the forums -- what a mess. I'm reverting back to 2.0.6.

[bellacoola]

Try out the solution I stumbled across here.

Does this help?

.../j

[bellacoola]

Have you tried using VMware's Converter?

.../j

[JMandersonBM]

Converter won't work based on the way 3.0 creates the initial disc. However, the other solution you found might work. I am trying it and working on it right now.

I would say give it a go and see what your performance results are like. Mine is a lot better so far.

I think I may have found a solution....

1) Forced off hard disk buffering in vmWare 3.0.0:

Settings | Advanced | Other

Changed Hard Disk Buffering from "Automatic" to "Disabled".

2) Exited vmWare 3.0.0

3) Restarted iMac.

I'll keep an eye on it to see whether the problem returns...

.../j

[akuska]

oh deep joy. so, all this hype about Fusion 3.0 being a better product than 2.0 is predicated on me converting or rebuilding my virtual machines to take advantage of the new format. why vmware, did you not think to yourselves "hmmm, I wonder if our user base has lots of existing machines they'd like to convert?"...gee, I wonder. couldn't you have put something like a decent converter in there amongst the mix of new stuff coming out with Fusion 3.0 or at least SPELT IT OUT A BIT MORE CLEARLY. oh sorry, if you did that not many people would want to spend money on an upgrade in the droves that they obviously did as it crashed the upgrade portal.

hopefully someone will document a method that works, or (shock) vmware will release a 2.0 -> 3.0 VM converter.

Wow. Some people are hard to please. Would you rather they not made that feature available at all? It sounds like a limitation in XP more than anything (since Vista and 7 benefit without reinstalling). Anyway, according to the Twitter post it looks like you can use backup and restore to get a similar effect after reinstalling XP.

[jfriesne]

Out of curiosity....

Do Windows XP VMs that are installed as Boot Camp partitions benefit from the "greatly reduced memory usage"? Or is that feature only available to VMs that are installed via Easy Installer, which (AFAIK) can't install Boot Camp partitions?

Thanks,

Jeremy

[Gettnby]

Hi Pat,

I just have one question and hope you can help. Does this reduced memory usage "with newly created XP VM" apply to XP Pro also? If so, I will create a new VM from CD, full Windows backup of old VM, then full restore to new VM to see if that may be a solution. I don't want to go through the process if it doesn't apply to XP Pro.

Thanks!

[JMandersonBM]

I have found that this solution I am replying to is working quite well for me. Much faster, much less memory consumption. I think at some point i will create a new machine though, and then restore a full backup to it.