I don't think I understand this function. If I am running Windows and choose "Suspend" and then "Restore", it takes forever to load back up, I mean 5 minutes? However if I just shut windows down normally, and close the virtual machine, next time I want to use it and restart it, it only take a couple of seconds. What is the purpose of the Suspend?
Under ideal conditions Suspending a Virtual Machine is supposed to enable one to quickly stop what one is doing and be able come back to it later without loosing a step so to speak and this process ideally is supposed to be faster then closing applications and shutting down the OS in the Virtual Machine and then startup the Virtual Machine and boot the OS and reloading applications to continue working. However as you (and others including myself) have experienced this is not always the case. Bottom line if you're going to use the Suspend feature make sure that anything you're working on is saved to disk and not just in the open application before Suspending as at some point one may have reset the Virtual Machine to recover from a failed restore of a suspended state. Also for the very issue you described as a general rule if only for myself I rarely use the Suspend feature as I have found it to be buggy and problematic just like the VMware Shared Folders feature as well.
My 2nd question is, where is the saved Snapshot stored? I'd like to make a duplicate copy of it.
Snapshots are stored in the target Virtual Machine Bundle Package and making a copy of the Snapshot Virtual Hard Drive is of no use by itself per-se because at the present time in Fusion it is dependent on the unmodified Base Virtual Hard Drive to function properly. In other words if one is going to backup anything then one should backup the complete Virtual Machine Bundle Package and not individual files within the Virtual Machine Bundle Package.
The aforementioned statement is meant to be a General Best Practice Guideline however obviously if one is going to manually edit the Virtual Machine .vmx configuration file its prudent to make a backup of that file individually prior to modifying it and that by itself does not necessarily necessitate backing up the complete Virtual Machine Bundle Package just to edit the .vmx configuration file.
As a side note one should also on a regular basis be backing up the User Data from within the Virtual Machine to a location outside of the Virtual Machine and off of the Host System and should also have a Known Good Working Copy of the Virtual Machine archived in some manner off of the Host System in order to recover from any issue whether brought about by something unforeseen or just plain old fashion End User Error!
you're most helpful!
