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GodivaRides
Contributor
Contributor

VMware Player file won't transfer from External drive to C drive

I have previously d/l  VMware Player to run various programmes on XP such as OE6 (not interested in replacements thank you) that will not run on 64 bit  Windows 7 (which I hate).

My Acer was defective  so I had to back up everything on an external drive .... trying to ensure I had  the VM files with info in it ... all seemed good.

I d/l VMware Player  again on my new HP, copied all my files from the external drive onto the C drive (which are functioning fine) and then dropped the VMware folder containing its contents into the newly loaded VMware  Player file ... tried to open my VM except I was told I didn't have permission  to do so  .. and that the path was wrong or syntax error.

I have tried numerous times to open the files but to no avail, finally I opened VMware Player on C drive then opened the E drive to access the files where the folder is safely stored and run it from the external drive - works perfectly.  Except I want all my info on the laptop and then perform regular back ups.

How are these VMware folders suppose to be set up?  Should I d/l the VMware Player on the external drive and transfer together?

Thank you in advance for your help.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

For the cleanup:

I went through the posts and if I'm not mistaken you can delete the following 3 folders, assuming VMware Player is now installed in the default location under C:\Program Files... and the copied/imported Windows XP VM is now located in "C:\Users\Sandra\Documents\Virtual Machines\WIN_xp".

C:\Virtual_Machines

C:\Virtual_Machines_8182011

C:\Users\Sandra\Documents\Virtual Machines\Virtual_Machines_8182011

However, you mentioned a second virtual machine you created!? Please make sure you don't accidently delete this one. I'd recommend you first rename the above folders and delete them later, after making sure everything works without issues.

Regarding backup, I'm using Acronis TrueImage which worked without issues for the last couple of years.

Sorry, no suggestions concerning OE6 recovery .

André

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jeanchen
Community Manager
Community Manager

GodivaRides,

I'm the developer of the vmware communities platform. We had a outage on 8/18 around 1:10pm for the site, we'd like to see if your upload of the 7MB image is a victim or related to other root cause issue for analysis. Would you mind to email me the 7MB image file that you tried to upload on 8/18 1:10pm.

My email is jean@vmware.com.

Thanks for a lot for helping us!!

Jean

--Jean --vmware
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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Jean,

the file (actually no attachment, but a pasted screen shot) existed in Re: VMware Player file won't transfer from External drive to C drive.

Due to the fact that opening the discussion took a very, very long time, I decided to replace the screen shot of the whole desktop with the relevant part of it to reduce the size.

André

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jeanchen
Community Manager
Community Manager

So you never tried the whole desktop screenshot image insertion into discussion around 1:10pm on 8/18?  Only the reduced size one that is already in the discussion around 3pm on 8/18 ( Site is back to normal after 2pm)

Thanks!!

Jean

--Jean --vmware
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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

No, however to edit the post, I had to open the post in the Editor which also took a very long time. Once opened, I copied the pasted image to mspaint and created a jpg from the relevant part. Then I removed the pasted image from the post and inserted the jpeg using the "Insert Image" icon.

André

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jeanchen
Community Manager
Community Manager

we need the pasted image you removed from the post if you still have it. Not the final jpeg in the thread now.

Thanks!!

Jean

--Jean --vmware
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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Sorry Jean. I did not keep/save it. I just did a copy&paste from the posted screen shot and saved the modified (posted) jpg file. In case it helps, it was a screen shot of the full Windows desktop (like the other screen shts posted before in this discussion.)

André

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GodivaRides
Contributor
Contributor

Hello Andre,  unfortunately back again ... yesterday had the fated BLUE SCREEN with this message ... bear in mind this is a brand new laptop:

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE

NEW HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE IMPROPERLY INSTALLED there was also a long string of code followed with:

Collecting Data for Crash Dump ... Iniatilizing disk for crash dump ... beg dump of physical memory ... dumping physical memory to dish: 100

kinda scared the $$$ out of me!

restarted windows ... message comes up WINDOWS RECOVERED FROM AN UNEXPECTED SHUTDOWN

VM was working fine ... I began to remove the 3 files indicated previously as ok to do so ... so 1 by 1 deleted and checked VM .. all seemed good ... when they were removed ...

changed name of c:\virtual machines_primary FROM _81812011

deleted: users\sandra\documents\virutalmachines\WIN_xp

same path as above ... replaced WIN_xp with WINDOWS XP Programme

rebooted

was very slow and then couldn't open file ... VM Authorization Service not Running

RESTORED all deleted files anad REINSTALLED VM Player 3.1.4 ... as this was deleted from C drive

rebooted ... all fine

deleted WIN_xp and Windows XP Programme from inside folder: Virtual_Machine_8182011 ...

both of those files are located in USER\Sandra\documents\virtualmachine\ and there is also a folder Virtual_Machine_8182011

*****************************************************************

I'm unsure what happened - if windows tried to install an update, all of a sudden the system froze,  I trled to exit or close and the message came up VIRTUAL MACHINE IS BUSY ... so I forced a close down since the VM wouldn't allow me to exit ... then the above blue screen and message came up.

I sent this to Jean yesterday, since i couldn't log in here.

Sandra

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

To be honest, I can't really follow you with the file and folder names you renamed/deleted.

However, in the end you should have:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Vmware\VMware Player <-- with the application binaries

and

C:\Users\Sandra\Documents\Virtual Machines <-- with the virtual machine folders

I can't tell you what happened. It seems there's something wrong with the installation path of VMware Player though. Did you select the default directory (see above) during installation?

Were all the VM's powered off and VMware Player closed, when you moved/deleted the folders?

André

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GodivaRides
Contributor
Contributor

Andre,

I hear you on the files and folders.

ok .. here is what I have:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Vmware\VMware Player <-- with the application binaries

and

C:\Users\Sandra\Documents\Virtual Machines <-- with the virtual machine folders

Yes to #1 ... but the folder is empty

BUT, there is ALSO this folder listed under the C drive (on the same page as Program Files (x86)

c:\Virtual_Machine_8182011 ... with 147 items listed inside the folder

then I have this:

c:\users\Sandra\mydocuments\VirtualMachines ... with 3 folders listed:

Virtual_Machines_8182011 ... with 157 items listed - excluding the following 2 folders

WIN_xp .. with16 items listed ... this is the current IN USE as it shows updates for today 24/08/11

Windows XP Professional ... with 12 items listed

I'm not sure why I have 2 folders Virtual_Machine_81812011 each with different numbers listed

I tried to be careful about deleting files to ensure the VM would run ... so I didn't lose any info .. which is good ... but the Blue Screen .... BAAAAD!!!

Sandra

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

If I remember correctly, you once installed VMware Player to the C:\Virtual_Machine_8182011 folder!? Later you copied this folder to the VirtualMachines folder!?

To cleanup this installation mismatch, I'd recommend you do

  • a clean uninstall of VMware Player
  • rename the C:\Virtual_Machine_8182011 to e.g. C:\Virtual_Machine_8182011_old
  • rename the Virtual_Machine_8182011 in the VirtualMachines folder to Virtual_Machine_8182011_old
  • reinstall VMware Player to the C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player folder

André

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GodivaRides
Contributor
Contributor

ok ... here is the problem ... Windows or VM will not allow me to uninstall .. the message comes up:

Error 1316:  a network error occurred while attempting to read from the file c:\Windows Installer\vmware player.msi

I changed the old files to OLD extension on the 8182011 vm ware files.

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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

Please follow the steps in the order I provided. Renaming is second, after uninstalling!

André

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