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barrygf
Contributor
Contributor

Migrating Fusion to a new MacBook: Time Machine and "Windows 7 x64.vmwarevm"

On my current old MacBook (mid-2010), Time Machine has never completed unless "Windows 7 x64.vmwarevm" is excluded (I currently have VMware Fusion 8.5.10).  Why is that?  File too big (80 GB)?

This issue is now critical for me because I am migrating to a new MacBook (Silicon M1 chip), and my Time Machine backups will not contain "Windows 7 x64.vmwarevm".  So what should I do on my new MacBook to install/run VMware Fusion?  Should I download it from online, and set up its contents all over again?  Or manually copy in "Windows 7 x64.vmwarevm" into Documents/Virtual Machines on the new MacBook?

PS.  "VMware Fusion 12.1.0 (for Intel-based Macs)" appear to be the only modern version available for download.  VMWare has advised me that this version will run on the new MacBook (Silicon M1 chip)  -  I hope that is true, though the Communities posts do not seem to confirm that.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

@barrygf 

Fusion does not currently work on the M1.

Before others say it, you should never rely on Time Machine to backup VMs - you can move VM files between Macs separately to Time Machine, however if your new Mac uses an M1 this is not relevant to you at the moment.

 


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barrygf
Contributor
Contributor

Hi scott28tt.  Thank you very much for this response.  

Ok, so I can manually migrate the "Virtual Machines" folder containing the .vmwarevm file, and hopefully Fusion will by default find it and use it on a new Mac.  (And not bother to try to back them up on either the old or the new Mac.)

Are you able to tell me how to obtain the best information regarding if and when an M1-compatible Fusion will be available?

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

@barrygf 

Search this forum area for "M1" or "silicon" and you'll discover other threads on the topic.

 


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Although I am a VMware employee I contribute to VMware Communities voluntarily (ie. not in any official capacity)
VMware Training & Certification blog
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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

The short answer is that we do expect support for ARM guests, but Intel guests are an unknown.

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barrygf
Contributor
Contributor

Hi dlhotka.  Ok (but I assume you inadvertently put these the wrong way around i.e. you meant "The short answer is that we do expect support for Intel guests, but ARM guests are an unknown").

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dempson
Hot Shot
Hot Shot


@barrygf wrote:

Hi dlhotka.  Ok (but I assume you inadvertently put these the wrong way around i.e. you meant "The short answer is that we do expect support for Intel guests, but ARM guests are an unknown").


No, dlhotka was correct.

On Apple Silicon Macs, which have an ARM processor, we expect a future version of VMware Fusion will be able to support ARM guests (e.g. you would be able to virtualise ARM variants of Linux, or macOS Big Sur).

Future support on Apple Silicon for Intel guests is unknown (e.g. Windows 10 or earlier for 32-bit or 64-bit Intel processors, Intel variants of Linux, or macOS Catalina or earlier). This is considerably more complicated as it would require emulating the Intel processor as well as the rest of the virtual machine.

You definitely can't use your Windows 7 VM on an Apple Silicon Mac at the moment, and it is unknown whether it will ever work in future. If you need to be able to run that VM on a Mac, then you need to keep a working Intel Mac.

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DerekShaw
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

ah, no.  Emulation would be required to host x86 guests.  Arm guests would not need the extra translation layer.

https://osxdaily.com/2020/12/04/how-install-rosetta-2-apple-silicon-mac/

  

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barrygf
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you dempson (and DerakShaw)

Ok, I think I follow (I'm on a sharp learning curve!).  So a future Fusion, at least initially, may not support Windows (unless Windows puts out an ARM version too!) ...?  However, I assume this will be a priority for VMware as I presume that's Fusion's key objective ...?  (Will they beat Parallels to it?)

BTW, my VMware started with Windows 7, but I replaced that with Windows 10 a few years ago.  (I assume that's why the filename is still "Windows 7 x64.vmwarevm" in Finder  -  can I rename that file without any effect on running VMware?)

 

 

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