"The file specified is not a virtual disk." - When using physical disk.

[enerata]

Hi all,

In a guest I add a Hard Disk (physical disk) that points to a single partition in
.\PhysicalDrive0. Everything works great, I power up the guest, I shut it down, I close VMWare Player and open it up again, all is good.

The problem is that when I reboot the host I get a "The file specified is not a virtual disk." error. To fix this I have to remove the Hard Drive and add a new one, only this time, the partition I want to make available in the virtual machine is located in
.\PhysicalDrive1..

I have attached the *.vmdk files that are created in both cases that verify what I'm saying. The Ubuntu-0-pt.vmdk and Ubuntu-1-pt.vmdk are identical.

It's annoying to have to remove and add the Hard Disk each time the host reboots. Is there a way to fix this?

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers,

George

[enerata]

The problem does not reproduce if I have two virtual disks pointing to both physical drives. However, that doesn't solve the problem because I only want to give access to one physical drive.

[enerata]

bump.

[WoodyZ]

Host OS and version?

Guest OS and version?

VMware Player version?

Host hardware configuration specifically internal hard drives and how partitioned/formatted and external hard drive type and how partitioned/formatted?

Are any of the drives in question external?

[continuum]

Interesting - looks like both vmdks describe the same physical disk.

I would understand why this happens if you have a multiboot scenario on your host and use grub or something like that which changes the perceived disk numbers...

Important to ask - is the pre or post Vista Windows ?

XP and 2003 handle rawdisks different to Vista or higher




_________________________

VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

You also find me in the support crew of PHD Virtual Backup

[enerata]

Hello WoodyZ, thank you for responding!

Host OS and version?

Windows 7.

Guest OS and version?

Ubuntu 10.04.

VMware Player version?

VMware-player-3.1.0-261024.

Host hardware configuration specifically internal hard drives and how partitioned/formatted and external hard drive type and how partitioned/formatted?

The Windows host is installed in /dev/sda1. When I give the VM guest access only to /dev/sda6, I have to recreate the vmdk after each host reboot because of the problem I described in the first post. When I give the VM guest access to both /dev/sda6 & /dev/sdb1, the problem does not reproduce.

Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x8bc4843a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 * 1 15665 125829081 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sda2 15666 20887 41945715 83 Linux

/dev/sda3 20888 121601 808985174+ 5 Extended

/dev/sda5 20888 21670 6289416 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sda6 21671 121601 802695726 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk identifier: 0x000303a1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdb1 1 60801 488384001 83 Linux

Are any of the drives in question external?

No.

Cheers,

George

[enerata]

Hello continuum, thank you for responding!

Interesting - looks like both vmdks describe the same physical disk.

Absolutely.

I would understand why this happens if you have a multiboot scenario on your host and use grub or something like that which changes the perceived disk numbers...

I do have a multiboot environment and I am using GRUB, but I'm not sure how to find out if GRUB changes the perceived disk numbers 8-|

Important to ask - is the pre or post Vista Windows ?

XP and 2003 handle rawdisks different to Vista or higher

The host runs Windows 7.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

George

[continuum]

Hi George

the problem in your case is Grub - it rewrites the MBR on each change of boot.

And so VMplayer thinks the *-pt.vmdk is no longer valid

Can you boot the guest from a floppy image ?

That may help




_________________________

VMX-parameters- WS FAQ -[ MOAcd|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VMDK-Handbook

You also find me in the support crew of PHD Virtual Backup