VMwarePlayer host Ubuntu on ext4 : guest Windows10 does not work on NTFS partition

[aertsb]

Hi,

I have installed VMwarePlayer 15.5.2 in Ubuntu 20.04 as host, where I use / en /home on ext4 partitions.
I first tried to install guest OS Windows 10 in a folder on my second disk which is NTFS.

Installing Windows did not proceed and Ubuntu became very unresponsive.

I could create a Windows 10 Virtual Machine in my /home and  that works fine and fast.
Again copying it to the NTFS disk did not work.
Is this a limitation of VMwarePlayer only?

If I would step to VMwareWorkstation it would be possible?

Kind regards,

Bert

[scott28tt]

You should note that Ubuntu 20.04 is not supported to run Workstation (Player or Pro): VMware Knowledge Base

Not saying that’s why you’re having the issue.

I cannot think why Player and Pro would be different from one another regarding the problem you are having.

[dariusd · Accepted solution]

Although Ubuntu has the capability to read and write NTFS partitions, I strongly advise that you store VMs on a "native" Linux/Unix filesystem(ext3/ext4, maybe even xfs/btrfs).

VMware Workstation is unlike any typical application.  It pushes the limits of many aspects of an operating system, and is likely to expose performance (or reliability!) issues in OS filesystem drivers.  OS "native" filesystem drivers are much more likely to correctly handle the demands of Workstation.  We do not test Workstation for Linux with NTFS filesystems, and we can not guarantee that the Linux NTFS drivers will be capable of dealing with all of the unusual things that VMware Workstation can do while running a virtual machine.

The only thing I can immediately think of which might help somewhat is to add the "noatime" option to the mount options for the filesystem in your /etc/fstab, but from your description it seems unlikely to help.

Workstation Pro is likely to behave in exactly the same way as Workstation Player with regard to the performance issue you have described.

Thanks,

--

Darius

[aertsb]

Hi dariusd,

Thank you very much for your thorough answer.

It makes a lot of sense!

Thanks a lot.

Bert