Accepted Solutions
If the file is 280 GB then there's a reasonable risk it is fragmented and that could indeed cause slow downs.
If you have enough free disk space (a little under 300GB) then the steps to change into a split disk are:
- shut down the VM
- go to "Settings"
- select the Virtual Hard disk
- Advanced Options
- put a checkbox next to "Split into multiple files"
That will make your disk being based on files 2GB in size (yes that's 140 files for your current size, quite a bit, but it doesn't impact performance)
There's a number of advantages, but the biggest is that you only need a bit over 2GB in size if you use snapshots or try to shrink your disk. Shrinking in this case is just not writing out the parts not used on your disk not actually shrinking the guest disk size. So your guest OS can still use a full 280GB if it needs it, but if it is only using 24GB then only 24GB is used at OSX side.
It is possible to shrink the guest OS disk size as well, but that's more advanced and needs additional software for cloning the disk.
hope this helps,
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Wil
re. Netherlands, nope I'm in the south while Groningen is in the North.
Hi sinister69
AFAIK Fusion 3 doesn't work on Maverick's, Fusion 6 OTOH should be fine.
sinister69 wrote:
Fusion 6 refuses to work now, and comes up with an error bsod with incompatible boot volume - omg, nooooooo!
The BSOD is a error 7B? or is it a different one?
Without messing up any of your other mac's lets stick to troubleshooting your troubled setup.
1. As you just installed Fusion 6, first thing is to verify it actually runs. For that just download a linux live CD and try to run it as a virtual machine. If it does then at least you know that Fusion 6 was installed correctly.
Eg. Download the following iso: http://releases.ubuntu.com/12.04/ubuntu-12.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso
and run it as a new Linux VM install from CD. (Steps: File New -> Install from Disk or image -> Use another disk or image -> select iso file -> Open -> Continue -> Finish -> Run)
2. Can you actually still run the bootcamp machine without VMware (eg. can you reboot your Mac into the windows machine using only bootcamp?)
When all that works:
3. Reload the bootcamp setup -> File New -> More Options -> Install from bootcamp -> Create a bootcamp virtual machine. This will ask for your Mac password and take a few minutes to process. Then it asks if you want have to type a password to startup your bootcamp VM (select your preference)
After this step it has created another entry in your library for the bootcamp machine and will try to boot.
If that still doesn't work then it would help if you attached the vmware.log files as an attachement to your reply here. (Use browse button in advanced editor (top link right) to attach the files)
hope this helps,
--
Wil
Hi sysjno - thanks for the reply. I am currently in the middle of doing exactly this, will report back once I have finished and tried it. Again, thanks for the suggestion. 
Hi wila - many thanks for the reply. I am currently doing a completely fresh Mavericks install on a spare machine to test if it was the OSX upgrading direct on top of my 10.6.8 that caused a problem. Once done, if it makes no difference, I will certainly action your suggested steps. Thanks again for replying
Hi sysjno
I have just finished installing a completely clean Mavericks onto a wiped drive, and have installed Fusion 6. When I try to open the duplicate copy of my working vm file, it does recognise it and asks if I copied it or Moved it, but whichever option I choose I immediately get an error that comes up as per the attached?
Hope you can shed some more light!
Many thanks
Hey Sinister69
If you just copied your bootcamp VM then it probably is a very small file.
The reason is that the vmdk you are looking at contains pointers to the real machine located on the bootcamp partition.
If you import your bootcamp partition in Fusion 3 (I think it was called that way in Fusion 3 as well, select VM, right click -> import) then Fusion makes a clone of the bootcamp partition to a real VM that you can copy and move to another host.
Without importing the VM you don't have a standalone VM and the files are bound to the machine that has the actual bootcamp OS installed.
--
Wil
Yes you understand correctly.
It's been a while since I used Fusion 3 and bootcamp, but yes no worries on loosing the bootcamp partition.
It basically runs a disk copy from your partition so that the VM becomes portable, it does not delete your bootcamp partition.
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Wil
You did the copy correct.
Now your VM is a normal VM and you can do a File -> Open on Mac b instead of import.
--
Wil
Wila
Hmm, that's what I have tried and I get the error I posted the screenshot of above. 
Strange, not sure now why you would get that and without additional information I am running out of ideas.
Can you attach the vmware.log files from that VM? (right click the VM, select "Show package contents", then attach the vmware###.log files to your reply here.
(Note in order to attach a file to this forum, you'll have to select the "Use advanced editor" link at the top right of your edit window. Then select the browse button to actually attach the files)
--
Wil
Wil
Thanks again for your reply. I have attached the 4 x log files as you asked (I hope it has worked!).
Whilst trawling through KBase articles I also found these little snippets that might be the problem:
In this article VMware KB: VMware Fusion 3 support for Mac OS X Lion (10.7) it states that Fusion virtual machines older than 3.13 do not start on 10.7 or later. My Fusion is 3.1.0, so that probably explains some, if not all, of my problems.
And it talks about using the standalone vConverter app..... scary! Maybe it is the solution though?
So it would seem to me that my problem is getting the working vm file to work with an intermediate generation of Fusion, so that it can be saved out for use by the latest Fusion on Mavericks, would you agree? I also am wondering if the fact that I jumped direct from Snow Leopard to Mavericks was problematic for Fusion. Perhaps I should fresh install Lion or Mountain Lion on Mac b and see if it is "the Mavericks factor" that has caused problems?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I do have a full working copy of Fusion 4.14, so as an experiment I loaded it onto my spare Snow Leopard mac to see if that would open my saved copy of the vm from Mac a - no joy, same "Diskearly Power On" error as above. What i did notice though was that when installing Fusion 4, there is a special installer for Upgrading from 3. I didn't use it as the spare mac has no previous Fusion 3 on it and I - once again - didn't want to do it on my working Mac a! Maybe
Then I started reading some more (as you can see this is occupying a lot of my time!) and I was wondering if this option would help me? In my Fusion 3.1.0 on mac a, if I select File > New and select Continue without Disk, and then select Use and Existing Virtual disk, I get to the screen in attached pic. Am I reading this right? Would this effectively duplicate my working Mac a VM? Maybe me just copying the bootcamp was the problem? As before though, I cannot jeopardise my working vm on Mac a!
Anyhow, hope the log files or my simple minded suggestions help you to help me, thanks again for your patience with me.
S
Hi,
Unfortunately I've not had much time today and will be out of the office tomorrow for most of the day.
Copied a vmware.log file and will try to have a look at that tomorrow during the day somewhere.
Re.
sinister69 wrote:
In this article VMware KB: VMware Fusion 3 support for Mac OS X Lion (10.7) it states that Fusion virtual machines older than 3.13 do not start on 10.7 or later. My Fusion is 3.1.0, so that probably explains some, if not all, of my problems.
That's really about Fusion 3.x itself, not the VMs.
I've moved VMs of all kinds of versions between all of VMware products and usually it is no problem.
Yes bootcamp VMs are a corner case, but I would expect that it should not be too hard to get a Fusion 3 bootcamp VM to work in Fusion 6.
Will try to get a bit more time tomorrow evening and reply, my next job is ... sleep.
edit: Create New and "Create a copy of the bootcamp disk" ...hmmm no it might work, but it might also make it all a lot messier.
I cannot recommend that step, it is not the normal way to import your bootcamp VM to a normal VM.
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Wil
OK.. couldn't wait, had a peek at your vmware.log.. it's from Fusion 3.x and thus of no use to me for troubleshooting a Fusion 6.x problem.
I read you did reinstall your mac on @sysjno's advice, which did not help as it had nothing to do with your VM.
If I read that correctly then you did that install on a fresh mac? You did not wipe out the first machine you talked about?
Eg. you still have the "failed Fusion install" with a working bootcamp partition? In other words, can you follow the steps of my first reply on the first of July on that one?
--
Wil
Hi,
Yes a screenshot of the BSOD might help.
re. install Mavericks on external disk and then run "install from bootcamp". Yes that should work and not damage your current setup.
--
Wil
Hi Wil
Hopes raised and dashed here - I installed Mavericks 10.9 onto an external and booted from it no problem. Installed Fusion 6 no problem. Went to Fusion, selected New > Install from Bootcamp, and hey presto it started with no warnings or errors and came up with a progress bar. Yess! (I imported from my working bootcamp on my mac, not the other mac that I suspect has a bad disk sector and won't boot from bootcamp into XP).
Kept an eye on it for about 30mins whilst finishing up at the office - the progress bar was moving very slowly but it was moving - and left it going overnight.
Came in this morning all hopeful, but NOOO! the progress bar is still exactly where it was when I left. Epic fail. Admittedly it hadn't crashed, there was no spinning beach ball of death, it just hadn't moved. The bootcamp partition doesn't have much on it other than XP and some programs, I don't store live data on it, so it surely couldn't take that long could it?
Can it really be this hard to move from Fusion 3.10 to Fusion 6.0.3 without trashing a working vm?
Beginning to think I will have to create a completely new W7 bootcamp and try to re-install my work software, and I really did not want to go down that route
Any further help really appreciated!
S