Newbie Disk Question

[countryone77]

VMWare Fusion Build number: Version 2.0.1 (128865)

What sort of Mac you have: Mac Pro

OS X level -- not sure how to determine that (I'm a newbie on Macs) -- 10.5.x -- I do have the latest updates as of last week.

I am using VMWare Fusion on a new Mac. I created a guest OS of MS Vista Ultimate 64-bit and it is working fine. I have plans to also create a guest OS of 64-bit Linux. When I purchased this machine, I hoped to be able to install the guest OS on a 2nd hard drive. I could not see any information on how to do that in any of the documentation or in the guest OS hard disk settings.

Is there a way to place the guest OS on a 2nd hard drive?

Thanks,

Beverly Pope

[admin · Accepted solution]

In the final step of creating a virtual machine, Fusion asks you where to save it. Select your external drive.

Also, think of virtual machines as the (very large) files that they are. You can move them around, copy them, and so on (when Fusion isn't running - never change files out from under Fusion!) just like normal files.

[charlesb770]

There are several setups that your question might refer to, so I'll try to answer all of them.

If the VM is already created, this I believe can be as simple as using finder to move the vm's (the .vmwarevm file) to the other hard drive. Once they are on the other hard drive, open up the virtual machine library in Fusion (it will probably complain about the missing virtual machines if you removed them from their original positions, ignore this) and then you can "drag and drop" the virtual machines from finder onto fusion's virtual machine library where they will remain accessible from their new locations.

if the VM is not yet created, setting the drive location is tricky in that the option of picking a vm location happens at an innocuous moment during VM creation: when fusion asks you what you want to name the VM. This is the primary opportunity to select a drive location for the vm (including the virtual disk) by clicking on the folder selection right under the name text box.

If you are asking about using a boot camp partition on a seperate hard drive then that is harder. For me, I had to disconnect the primary "os x" hard drive and then run the windows installer with the second drive connected so that windows thought it was the primary os. After the install was over, I reconnected the os x disk and everyone was happy. Fusion still detects the volume on the other drive and offers to boot it up.

C

[countryone77]

Thanks for the answer. I think I got a bit confused because some of the options I was trying to use. For example, I tried to make the virtual disk as large as my 2nd drive. I later read in one of the FAQs that is a bad idea, so it is probably good that it failed to do so.

[countryone77]

Thanks for the well thought out and very complete response. I am dealing with options #1 & #2.

When I created my 1st virtual machine, I created a 40 Gbyte virtual disk, with pre-allocated disk space. Is it possible to increase that without wiping out the disk?

Thanks,

Bev

[charlesb770]

It is possible, but it's very hard. If you search on this topic, you'll probably find a step-by-step response to such a question (I think this is a common request)

Basically, the major problem is that Windows actively tries to prevent you from expanding the system volume even if there is a bunch of room available on the disk.

When I want to do this, these are the steps I use:

0. Boot into windows.

0.1 Run a chkdsk /f command, answer yes to the "run on reboot" question and reboot. Let the check complete.

0.1.Vista - In explorer, right click on the C drive-> properties->Tools-> "check now"-> "Cancel or Allow annoyance: pick Allow or whatever"-> next popup: keep the first box checked, leave the second one empty->"Start"-> "Schedule disk check"-> Reboot and allow the check to finish.

0.2 When windows comes back up. right click on the C drive -> properties -> tools -> Defragment Now. Make it run the defrag (this can take a VERY long time if you've never done one. let it finish)

0.3 Shut down

1 Add another disk to the VM which is the size you'd like your windows install to grow to.

2. Download the latest Ubuntu image from the Ubuntu website and boot your VM with it. When it asks, choose to "Try Ubuntu first without Installing"

3 When Ubuntu has loaded the desktop, you'll find a useful utility located in the "System" menu called "Gnome Partition Editor" or sometimes just "Partition Editor"

4 Run this utility. (Your first hard disk will be called something like /dev/sda and the second /dev/sdb) Click the mouse on the windows system partition on the first disk. It will probably be called something like /dev/sda1

5 Right click on this partition and choose "Copy"

6 Choose the second drive from the big drive button in the top right of the utility.

7 Right click on the empty space on the second drive and choose "Paste"

8 Walk away...this will take a very long time to finish

9 When the copy is finished, right click on the new copied volume and choose "resize/move" drag the slider to expand to the entire available drive.

10 Walk away again: this will take forever.

11. When this is ALL finished, shutdown. You can remove the first disk from the VM now (but don't delete it yet until you're sure everything has worked)

12. Boot from your windows CD in the VM. When it gives you the option to repair, do a repair. This should locate your windows volume and will fix the boot manager to allow the new partition to boot.

13. Your new, expanded windows volume should now be all yours to play with.

I may have missed a step or two. I haven't had to do this in quite a while. VMWare may also have already come up with an easier way. Do some searches. This was a pretty common thing to want to do if my recollection is correct.

C

[WoodyZ]

When I created my 1st virtual machine, I created a 40 Gbyte virtual disk, with pre-allocated disk space. Is it possible to increase that without wiping out the disk?

Yes and it is a relatively simple process and not nearly as convoluted as what's being suggested by in .

How to Resizing a Hard Disk...

Note: I always suggest making a backup copy of the Virtual Machine Package before a resize operation.

Note: The Virtual must be shutdown, not suspended, from within the Guest OS.

Note: The Virtual Machine cannot have any Snapshots.

Note: You must have adequate free disk space available to preform the resize operation and Fusion does not preform this check before starting the process so you need to validate you have the space required.

Then follow the information in the VMware Fusion Help File...

VMware Fusion (menu bar) > Help > VMware Fusion Help > Managing Virtual Machines > Managing Virtual Hard Disks > Resizing a Hard Disk

Then read the "Resizing Windows Vista Partitions" section near the bottom of .

Note: When done with the resize you can defrag the disk if you want to.