VMware Workstation 6.x, Fedora 8, USB External Hard Drive (NTFS)

[DeafMCSA]

I have Tested both VMware Server and VMware Workstation 6.x in Fedora 8 64-bit. I was unable to install a new VM on an USB External Hard Drive. It generate a CPU error. I test it on the internal hard drive and it works like a charm. I did some minor research on VM Communities, however very little answers as well on google search. There was some posting states to wipe out the external hard drive and format it using ext2/3. Of course, this kind of make sense, however, I do not have a solid answer why VMware for Linux will not work with USB external hard drive that is formatted in NTFS.

I had done additional testing with VirtualBox and it successfully works using the USB External Hard drive that is formatted as NTFS. I want to be able to use the VM on the USB External Hard drive to connect on another system. There something that I might not be aware of. Fedora has no issue read/write to the External Hard drive that is NTFS. VirtualBox has no issue read/write to the External Hard drive that is NTFS. However I am struggling to get VMware Workstation/Server for Linux to work with the External Hard drive that is NTFS, not ext2/3.

Any suggestion for me to try?

[DeafMCSA]

VMware Player for Linux has the same issue that it unable to run a created VM on a NTFS External Hard Drive in Linux.

[DeafMCSA]

I was able to use VMware Player for Linux 64-Bit and VMware Workstation 6.x to open and run VM from an USB External Hard drive using FAT32. Only problem is that FAT32 only support up to 4GB file size, and NTFS has no file size limit at this time. I rather have the VMs in NTFS than FAT32.

[DeafMCSA]

Here is the error message that I get in VMware Player/Workstation 6.x accessing existing VM or creating VM on an external hard drive that is formated as NTFS:

VMware (Player/Workstation) unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)

Failed to allocate page for guest RAM!

A log file is available in "edited out location path.../vmware.log". Please request support and include the contents of the log file.

To collect the data to submit to VMware support, run "vm-support".

We will respond on the basis of your support

entitlement.

[DeafMCSA]

Pointed out that may need to modified the VMware Server/Workstation/Player's .vmx file. What need to be done is to enter the following:

mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE"

After enter this information, I had fully test this in VM player for Linux 64-bit and VMware Workstation 6.x for Linux 64-bit.

Tested using the following application from Virtual Appliance page:

1. JanusVM (Notes: Using JanusVM-19-oct-2007, the problem did not occured during the testing. There is no issue using this)

2. vm-freenats (Notes: Able to produced the problem. Modifying the .vmx file by adding ===> mainMem.useNamedFile = "FALSE" <===. Run the test using both VM Player and Workstation 6.x and it had resolved the issue.

3. Tested a custom built VM from someone else, and it had produced the problem and enter the solution and it now working.

Will be creating some VMs this week, I will be posting some additional information. Additional notes, all this testing were been done on a USB External Hard Drive that is formated as NTFS.

What had produced the problem? I am trying to figure this out, if someone else out there may have an answer, please post some information on here that may help others.

===> Resource for solution, and credited CoronaBVW url: http://communities.vmware.com/message/708752#708752