Temporarily move VM to laptop

[Sylin]

I just bought VMware Fusion and converted my Parallels file to Fusion. The very next day, my iMac died. Thankfully I have a trusty backup, but while I wait on the repair, all I have to work on is my Macbook Pro.

Is it possible to temporarily move my VM to the Macbook? How would I do that without triggering Windows Activation, because I already had to call Microsoft once when converting from Parallels to VMware last week.

I'm sorta new at this, and new to Macs, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[bradley4681 · Accepted solution]

Technically it shouldn't ask to reactivate as long as you use the same version of fusion and tell it you just moved it when asked, but then again its Vista and I've had ones that did and didn't.

Cheers,

Bradley Sessions

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

[WoodyZ]

If it's a Time Machine Backup you may be in trouble in that TM may have not backed up the Virtual Machine Bundle Package in its entirety. Anyway providing you do not change the amount of memory you gave the Virtual Machine the only thing that would change is the CPU and that alone should not trigger reactivation. Just copy the Virtual Machine Bundle Package to the MBP and then respond with "I moved it" when you start it the first time so it maintains the same UUID and MAC Address to further avoid reactivation.

[Sylin]

No, I stopped using TM backups a few months ago when I realized they were breaking on backups for Parallels and Entourage (the files are corrupted if the app is open during backup). So I switched to DejaVu which does a backup every night. Very helpful.

That said, I'm going to try installing VMware on the Macbook and use the "I Moved It" option you suggested.

Is there any negative to doing this (moving the VM) multiple times? This would be a great boon to be able to take my VM with me when I travel, which isn't frequently, but tends to be a headache when I do.

Thanks.

[bradley4681]

I keep all my VM's on an external drive, with the install programs for fusion, and workstation so that I can use them where ever i am with or without my own computer.

Cheers,

Bradley Sessions

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".

[WoodyZ]

Is there any negative to doing this (moving the VM) multiple times?

Not really as this is one of the features of virtualization. I use Volume License versions of Windows OSes to avoid activation issues however since that is not the case for you just say "I moved it" too keep the MAC Address and UUID as changing the MAC Address counts a lot against the threshold point for reactivation.

[Sylin]

Do you RUN the VM's from the external drive? Or copy it to a local drive first? This might not be a totally bad idea for me as I have a 160gb external LaCie drive that is powered off the Firewire port, so it's ultra-portable. I wouldn't be against running my VM off of it if it's plausible, just because the only thing we use the VM for is QuickBooks and Paint Shop Pro (don't ask--company's decision).

Thx.

[WoodyZ]

I run Virtual Machines from the internal hard drive and external hard drives and Firewire is better then USB although you can use USB however it's noticeably slower then when run from Firewire or internal hard drive.

[bradley4681]

I run them off the external, but its a 7200rpm drive anything less and they seem to crawl. It's actually a 7200rpm laptop drive in a small firewire/usb case. I had a full 3.5 drive that i used to use over USB that worked fine, but I wanted something smaller.

160GB BTW

Cheers,

Bradley Sessions

If you found this or other information useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful".