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cdenesha
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OSX 10.8 as guest - additional HDDs don't mount on startup

Hello,

I'm running OSX ML 10.8.3 and Fusion 5.0.3, and am running ML 10.8.3 and Server.app as a guest for Netboot and DeployStudio.

I have added additional virtual hard drives to this VM for image storage.They are IDE, single file hard drives - standard stuff. Many times when I start the guest the additional drives do not mount. In Disk Utility I see them but cannot mount them, and if I do a Disk Repair it just spins forever, doing nothing I think. If I restart the guest they sometimes mount and are fine, no damage. Other times I have to restart several times to get them to mount.

Has anyone else seen this?

thanks,

chris

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dariusd
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Hi Chris,

Is there a reason you've chosen IDE instead of SCSI?

Recent versions of Mac OS don't get along well with virtual hard disks on our emulated PIIX4 IDE controller, which is why we default to SCSI disks when creating Mac OS VMs and adding hard disks to them.  I'd strongly advise that you stick with SCSI virtual hard disks for Mac OS guests.

Cheers,

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Darius

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dariusd
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Hi Chris,

Is there a reason you've chosen IDE instead of SCSI?

Recent versions of Mac OS don't get along well with virtual hard disks on our emulated PIIX4 IDE controller, which is why we default to SCSI disks when creating Mac OS VMs and adding hard disks to them.  I'd strongly advise that you stick with SCSI virtual hard disks for Mac OS guests.

Cheers,

--

Darius

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cdenesha
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I've wondered about that default.

I've had issues in the past with Windows guests and SCSI, specifically P2V with Win2000 server and the VMWare Converter and then not being able to boot up. So I've just gotten used to specifying IDE when creating all drives.

Is there an easy way to migrate the main volume and secondary ones to SCSI?

chris

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WoodyZ
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As a workaround you could set entries in the fstab file to have then mount automatically.

By default the fstab file is not use in OS X however I use it as I have many external drives that have multiple partitions of different filesystem and I do not want certain partitions being mounted so I use fstab to stop OS X from automatically mounting in specific cases when plugging these drive in.  So you could set your extra disks to mount automatically in fstab.

In a Terminal: sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add a line for each as in the example below however use the UUID (Universal Unique Identifier) for each volume you want mounted on each drive.  You can get the UUID from Info in Disk Utility after selecting the target volume.

UUID=2F1EAF27-C132-32B6-8919-51D08398D4A1 none hfs rw,auto

For additional info on fastb, in a Terminal type: man fstab

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dariusd
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I don't think that will help...  IDE virtual hard disks with Mountain Lion guests will encounter seemingly-random I/O errors and device/port/driver hangs, which is the reason for the OP's inability to manually mount the volumes, and is the reason we default to SCSI.

As far as I can tell, the most recent Mac systems with IDE/PATA hard drives were back in the PowerPC era (PATA optical drives were in Mac Pro systems as late as 2008), so it's not as if Apple is exactly exercising and maintaining this configuration.  :smileyplain:

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Darius

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WoodyZ
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You have some choices, either create a disk image and write it back to a new SCSI virtual hard disk or you'd have to change information in the Disk DescriptorFile of the virtual hard disk.  With "twoGbMaxExtentSparse" type disks then is easy as the first Extent is a text file not a binary file link the remaining Extents and with "monolithicSparse" the Disk DescriptorFile is embedded in the binary file and would need to be extracted, modified and injected back.  In your OP you said they were "single file hard drives" do I'm assuming they're "monolithicSparse" so if you're not comfortable using Terminal and dd then creating a disk image and writing it back to new SCSI virtual hard disks is what I'd recommend.  If they are "monolithicSparse" and you want to pursue using Terminal and dd then you need to first make a proper backup of the Virtual Machine Package as making mistakes with dd can destroy the virtual hard disk.

So if they are "monolithicSparse" and you want directions using dd to extract/inject the Disk DescriptorFile in order to change the adapter type and geometry of the virtual hard disk.

WoodyZ
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I agree they should be SCSI and only presented that as a (possible) workaround and should have originally stated "possible".  I also posted a reply suggesting that the disk be imaged to new SCSI virtual hard disks or the Disk DescriptorFile be edited.

@cdenesha With the imaging it can be directly from one disk to another (depending on how you want to go about it)  or create an image file of the original and then write it to the new disk.

WoodyZ
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I'd also like to add that if VMware is aware of the issue with using IDE virtual hard disks in a Mac OS X or OS X Virtual Machines then why does VMware allow one to choose IDE under the circumstances without presenting any warnings whatsoever!?

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cdenesha
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Thank you both.

Since Mac is so awesome about imaging, I think I'll use Carbon Copy Cloner to image to a new SCSI configured drive. For some reason I was getting hung up on the disk type in my head and didn't think about imaging earlier today!

I agree that there should be some warning. I wonder if this can be why my 2012 MBP slows to a crawl whenever I am using the VM. I know part of it is due to the 5400 RPM drive but I thought VMWare was better at splitting up the load.

chris Smiley Happy

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cdenesha
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dariusd wrote:

I don't think that will help...  IDE virtual hard disks with Mountain Lion guests will encounter seemingly-random I/O errors and device/port/driver hangs, which is the reason for the OP's inability to manually mount the volumes, and is the reason we default to SCSI.

As far as I can tell, the most recent Mac systems with IDE/PATA hard drives were back in the PowerPC era (PATA optical drives were in Mac Pro systems as late as 2008), so it's not as if Apple is exactly exercising and maintaining this configuration.  :smileyplain:

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Darius

All Macs come with SATA drives, which is IDE is it not? Not sure what you mean.

chris

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dariusd
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While SATA drives do have integrated drive electronics, AFAICT the term "IDE" refers to the 40-pin parallel hard-disk connector that would later become ATA, gain CD/DVD (ATAPI) support, DMA/UDMA support, then move to an 80-conductor cable, and would eventually be renamed Parallel ATA at the time that Serial ATA arrived.  I don't think "IDE" is generally used to refer to any SATA devices, although I am not even remotely an authoritative source on such matters...

Cheers,

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Darius

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cdenesha
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To update the thread with my status - the volumes are always available on startup now that I've converted them to SCSI.

chris

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