VMWare Player error when attempting to defragment virtual disk

[richwaters]

I have a customer who has installed VMWare Player (latest version) on his Windows 7 laptop computer.  I assisted him in creating a Windows XP (32-bit) virtual machine that we imported from Windows XP Mode by using VMware vCenter Converter Standalone edition.  The import worked fine.  The virtual machine runs perfectly.

However, when I attempt to defragment the virtual disk by using the VMWare Player hard drive utility, I get an insufficient permission error and the procedure fails.  I have made sure that he has administrator/full control permissions on all of the files in the VMWare Virtual Machines folder which is located inside his documents folder.  I have tried running VMWare Player as administrator.  I can find no reason why he should be getting this error.  I have searched online for a solution and have found little information to shed any light on it and nothing that has worked.

Any assistance with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

[lostgeezer]

Another responder sent me a solution to the problem. If you right click on the VMWare Player icon, the popup includes the option to Run as Administrator. If I select that, then I can defrag, although if I try to Compact, I get an error. It seems that one fix just exposes the next problem.

[lostgeezer]

I’m getting frustrated. Selecting Run as Administrator did indeed allow me to defrag, but I’m now aware of 2 more problems.

1. If I try to Compact, I get a message that one of the supplied parameters is invalid.

2. VMWare Tools:

The tools appeared to install just fine and all the functions seem to be working, but I can’t access the Tools (I wanted to Shrink). The icon in the tray offers only About, Disable Icon, and Exit. VMWare Tools does not appear in the Control Panel. It is listed in the Add/Remove programs list, so I uninstalled and reinstalled, with the same result.

I also have a Windows 98 VM, in which VMWare Tools is accessible and in which I can Shrink (I can also Defrag and Compact).

I’m getting the impression that VMWare PLayer and XP Mode don’t really get along very well.

[Window_Dressing]

I found the solution was to take ownership of the entire Windows XP Mode folder in Program Files, and change the security settings to allow for Administrator permissions as well.