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dachadster13
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Virtual machine move issue

Hey everyone, I have a virtual machine installed which I need to move from one hard drive to another.  The problem I have is that the destination drive is formatted as FAT32 and cannot send the VM to that disk as it's over the 4 GB file restriction.  I changed the hard drive settings to split to 2 GB sections but cannot seem to find where those files moved to.  I then looked into the vmware-vdiskmanager -r sourceDisk.vmdk -t 1 targetDisk.vmdk option but it cannot find the .vmdk file associated with the VM.  It turns out when I installed the VM, it bundled everything into a .vmwarevm file.  I am not sure how I can accomplish this move now. Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

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WoodyZ
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If you've already selected "Split into 2 GB files" in the Virtual Machine's Settings then you can now copy/move the Virtual Machine Package (<name>.vmwarevm) to the FAT32 formatted drive/partition/volume.

A Virtual Machine Package (<name>.vmwarevm) is basically nothing more then a Folder containing files (and other folders).  Despite its size as shown in Finder, so long as "Split into 2 GB files" is selected in the Virtual Machine's Settings it can be copied/moved to a FAT32 formatted drive/partition/volume.

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WoodyZ
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If you've already selected "Split into 2 GB files" in the Virtual Machine's Settings then you can now copy/move the Virtual Machine Package (<name>.vmwarevm) to the FAT32 formatted drive/partition/volume.

A Virtual Machine Package (<name>.vmwarevm) is basically nothing more then a Folder containing files (and other folders).  Despite its size as shown in Finder, so long as "Split into 2 GB files" is selected in the Virtual Machine's Settings it can be copied/moved to a FAT32 formatted drive/partition/volume.

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dachadster13
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Thanks WoodyZ.  I didn't realize the .vmwarevm folder was in fact a folder.  Thank for the clarification.

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WoodyZ
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Yes, the Virtual Machine Package Extension (.vmwarevm) is registered with Launch Services to treat the Folder as a Package and in doing so has attributes an ordinary Folder doesn't however it is still basically a Folder.  You can ctrl-click (right-click) the Virtual Machine Package and select Show Package Contents if you need to access the files within the Package.  Double-clicking the Package will open VMware Fusion and start the Virtual Machine and that wouldn't happen if the .vmwarevm extension wasn't registered with Launch Services to do so.

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