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rednaw
Contributor
Contributor

Host OS and physical HDD

Hi

Here´s a question about adding physical HDD to a VM. I have tried to add a physical HDD to a VM where the host OS is Vista 64 and that didn´t work at all. Then I tried to add it to a VM where the host OS is XP and that works fine. Will it work when the host OS is Windows Server 2008? Or any other OS that can use a lot of RAM.

My problem is that I run 4 - 6 vms on the same machine and I need a lot of RAM, at least 8. Any ideas? Xp is out of the question.

By the way ....I just know that someone will comment "don´t use physical HDD in a vm" but I really need it. I transfer about 100GB daily to the vms and the fastest way is to copy from a physical HDD to a virtual disk. It is way faster than any others ways I´ve tried.

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rednaw
Contributor
Contributor

Oh ... just a clarification. I tried it with XP 32 on the host, and I think that the actual question is, will it work when the host OS is 64 bit.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Try XP-64 - Vista has problems with physical disks - don't know about 2k8 ?

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

You might be surprised but even while your guest OS is 32 bits and cannot even see the full 4GB memory range, workstation is capable of supporting 8GB per virtual machine.

Have a look here for an answer to a similar question.

It is also possible to run a 64bit guest on top of a 32bit guest. Things that seem a bit impossible where VMware manages to get away with.

Which doesn't mean that -if you have the time to install- a 64bit WinXP host isn't going to be the better alternative as that OS is more modern and will virtualize better, but just pointing out that the constraints you would normally think you have, are actually not completely there.



--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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rednaw
Contributor
Contributor

I don´t really understand. If my host is XP32 and theres 8 GB RAM installed, can the virtual machines use all 8 GB? I thought the fact that the host only can use 3 and a bit more RAM was the limit.

I´m confused Smiley Happy

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Yes it can. Actually my understanding is that the limit is 8GB per VM so your host can even have more, as long as the hardware supports it.

The Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) is an equal partner to your Windows XP host and is more of a peer to windows as that it runs within windows XP like normal windows applications do.

As a result it does not have the same limits as windows XP. Yes I agree that this is a bit confusing as we all have been teached that no application can go beyond the boundaries in the host OS that it runs on.. except it doesn't really run within.. it manages XP as well when it switches back and forth between your guests and your host. So in a way your host becomes a guest as well.



--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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rednaw
Contributor
Contributor

If that works....i´m impressed. Thanks for the input. I will try it as soon as possible.

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