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octopop
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-18-2022 12:39 PM

Workstation 16 PRO -Trying to use Physical disk. ERROR operation on file "\\.\PhysicalDrive2" failed

Hello,

I have followed the documentation and advise on the forums, however, I am not sure why I am unable to mount a physical disk (NVMe SSD) as a boot drive for a VM within Workstation 16 Pro.

I am getting the following error:

The operation on file "\\.\PhysicalDrive2" failed.

If the file resides on a remote file system, make sure that the network connection and the server where this disk resides are functioning properly. If the file resides on removable media, reattach the media.

 Please see screenshots below. I have made sure to take the physical disk offline and remove any drive letters as suggested in the docs.

Screenshots

octopop_0-1650310617249.png

octopop_1-1650310637116.png

octopop_2-1650310659184.png

 

Contents of .vmx

.encoding = "windows-1252"
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "19"
mks.enable3d = "TRUE"
pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge4.functions = "8"
pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge5.functions = "8"
pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge6.functions = "8"
pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge7.functions = "8"
vmci0.present = "TRUE"
hpet0.present = "TRUE"
nvram = "OldWindows.nvram"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
powerType.powerOff = "soft"
powerType.powerOn = "soft"
powerType.suspend = "soft"
powerType.reset = "soft"
displayName = "OldWindows"
usb.vbluetooth.startConnected = "TRUE"
firmware = "efi"
sensor.location = "pass-through"
guestOS = "windows9-64"
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
sound.autoDetect = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "hdaudio"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.present = "TRUE"
numvcpus = "4"
cpuid.coresPerSocket = "2"
memsize = "8192"
mem.hotadd = "TRUE"
sata0.present = "TRUE"
nvme0.present = "TRUE"
nvme0:0.deviceType = "rawDisk"
nvme0:0.fileName = "C:\VMs\OldWindows\OldWindows.vmdk"
nvme0:0.present = "TRUE"
sata0:1.autodetect = "TRUE"
sata0:1.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
sata0:1.fileName = "auto detect"
sata0:1.present = "TRUE"
usb.present = "TRUE"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
usb_xhci.present = "TRUE"
svga.graphicsMemoryKB = "8388608"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"
serial0.fileType = "thinprint"
serial0.fileName = "thinprint"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.present = "TRUE"
extendedConfigFile = "OldWindows.vmxf"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
numa.autosize.cookie = "40022"
numa.autosize.vcpu.maxPerVirtualNode = "4"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 39 ee 6b 20 fc 60-dc 75 48 51 3f dd 43 77"
uuid.location = "56 4d 39 ee 6b 20 fc 60-dc 75 48 51 3f dd 43 77"
vm.genid = "7619057673846327853"
vm.genidX = "-8165316759021424290"
nvme0:0.redo = ""
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"
pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"
pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"
pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"
pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"
usb.pciSlotNumber = "32"
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "160"
sound.pciSlotNumber = "33"
ehci.pciSlotNumber = "34"
usb_xhci.pciSlotNumber = "192"
sata0.pciSlotNumber = "35"
nvme0.pciSlotNumber = "224"
svga.vramSize = "268435456"
vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "134217728"
vmotion.checkpointSVGAPrimarySize = "268435456"
vmotion.svga.mobMaxSize = "1073741824"
vmotion.svga.graphicsMemoryKB = "8388608"
vmotion.svga.supports3D = "1"
vmotion.svga.baseCapsLevel = "9"
vmotion.svga.maxPointSize = "1"
vmotion.svga.maxTextureSize = "16384"
vmotion.svga.maxVolumeExtent = "2048"
vmotion.svga.maxTextureAnisotropy = "16"
vmotion.svga.lineStipple = "0"
vmotion.svga.dxMaxConstantBuffers = "14"
vmotion.svga.dxProvokingVertex = "0"
vmotion.svga.sm41 = "1"
vmotion.svga.multisample2x = "1"
vmotion.svga.multisample4x = "1"
vmotion.svga.msFullQuality = "1"
vmotion.svga.logicOps = "1"
vmotion.svga.bc67 = "9"
vmotion.svga.sm5 = "1"
vmotion.svga.multisample8x = "1"
vmotion.svga.logicBlendOps = "1"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:dd:43:77"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
vmci0.id = "1071465335"
monitor.phys_bits_used = "45"
cleanShutdown = "FALSE"
softPowerOff = "FALSE"
sata0:1.startConnected = "FALSE"
usb:1.speed = "2"
usb:1.present = "TRUE"
usb:1.deviceType = "hub"
usb:1.port = "1"
usb:1.parent = "-1"
usb_xhci:4.present = "TRUE"
usb_xhci:4.deviceType = "hid"
usb_xhci:4.port = "4"
usb_xhci:4.parent = "-1"

 

Thank you for the help.

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3 Replies
continuum
Immortal
Immortal
‎04-19-2022 10:33 AM

Which efi partition is used to boot your host Windows ?
The one on disk1 or the one on disk2 ?

Next step: create VM with Linux LiveCD and add a physical disk - disk 2 again but this time use individual partitions.
If that works all you need to do is to create a small EFI-boot partition from scratch.

By the way - why you want to boot the old Windows as a VM ?
- do you think it will be faster ??? - forget it

This general idea made sense in times of Windows XP and 2003 - nowadays you get a lot of extra problems for no benefit at all.

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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octopop
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-19-2022 07:19 PM

@continuum wrote:

Which efi partition is used to boot your host Windows ?

Disk 2 also has an EFI boot partition. This disk was my main Windows boot disk until 2 days back. All I did was add a new SSD to my system and made it primary with a fresh OS. So to answer, both have full bootable windows EFI -- however in the screenshots above, I am booted off of Disk-1.

 

@continuum wrote

By the way - why you want to boot the old Windows as a VM ?

I still sometimes need to access to certain settings, software etc. and currently I have to boot into the old SSD to boot old windows and get it out. I was hoping that instead, I can just boot off of the physical drive, get my job done and shut it down.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎04-20-2022 01:19 AM

Long text dumps are best placed in a "spoiler", add a spoiler by selecting the icon on the toolbar of a triangle with an exclamation mark.

This is the effect:

Spoiler
.encoding = "windows-1252"
config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "19"
mks.enable3d = "TRUE"
pciBridge0.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge4.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge4.functions = "8"
pciBridge5.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge5.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge5.functions = "8"
pciBridge6.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge6.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge6.functions = "8"
pciBridge7.present = "TRUE"
pciBridge7.virtualDev = "pcieRootPort"
pciBridge7.functions = "8"
vmci0.present = "TRUE"
hpet0.present = "TRUE"
nvram = "OldWindows.nvram"
virtualHW.productCompatibility = "hosted"
powerType.powerOff = "soft"
powerType.powerOn = "soft"
powerType.suspend = "soft"
powerType.reset = "soft"
displayName = "OldWindows"
usb.vbluetooth.startConnected = "TRUE"
firmware = "efi"
sensor.location = "pass-through"
guestOS = "windows9-64"
tools.syncTime = "FALSE"
sound.autoDetect = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "hdaudio"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.present = "TRUE"
numvcpus = "4"
cpuid.coresPerSocket = "2"
memsize = "8192"
mem.hotadd = "TRUE"
sata0.present = "TRUE"
nvme0.present = "TRUE"
nvme0:0.deviceType = "rawDisk"
nvme0:0.fileName = "C:\VMs\OldWindows\OldWindows.vmdk"
nvme0:0.present = "TRUE"
sata0:1.autodetect = "TRUE"
sata0:1.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
sata0:1.fileName = "auto detect"
sata0:1.present = "TRUE"
usb.present = "TRUE"
ehci.present = "TRUE"
usb_xhci.present = "TRUE"
svga.graphicsMemoryKB = "8388608"
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"
serial0.fileType = "thinprint"
serial0.fileName = "thinprint"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.present = "TRUE"
extendedConfigFile = "OldWindows.vmxf"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
numa.autosize.cookie = "40022"
numa.autosize.vcpu.maxPerVirtualNode = "4"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 39 ee 6b 20 fc 60-dc 75 48 51 3f dd 43 77"
uuid.location = "56 4d 39 ee 6b 20 fc 60-dc 75 48 51 3f dd 43 77"
vm.genid = "7619057673846327853"
vm.genidX = "-8165316759021424290"
nvme0:0.redo = ""
pciBridge0.pciSlotNumber = "17"
pciBridge4.pciSlotNumber = "21"
pciBridge5.pciSlotNumber = "22"
pciBridge6.pciSlotNumber = "23"
pciBridge7.pciSlotNumber = "24"
usb.pciSlotNumber = "32"
ethernet0.pciSlotNumber = "160"
sound.pciSlotNumber = "33"
ehci.pciSlotNumber = "34"
usb_xhci.pciSlotNumber = "192"
sata0.pciSlotNumber = "35"
nvme0.pciSlotNumber = "224"
svga.vramSize = "268435456"
vmotion.checkpointFBSize = "134217728"
vmotion.checkpointSVGAPrimarySize = "268435456"
vmotion.svga.mobMaxSize = "1073741824"
vmotion.svga.graphicsMemoryKB = "8388608"
vmotion.svga.supports3D = "1"
vmotion.svga.baseCapsLevel = "9"
vmotion.svga.maxPointSize = "1"
vmotion.svga.maxTextureSize = "16384"
vmotion.svga.maxVolumeExtent = "2048"
vmotion.svga.maxTextureAnisotropy = "16"
vmotion.svga.lineStipple = "0"
vmotion.svga.dxMaxConstantBuffers = "14"
vmotion.svga.dxProvokingVertex = "0"
vmotion.svga.sm41 = "1"
vmotion.svga.multisample2x = "1"
vmotion.svga.multisample4x = "1"
vmotion.svga.msFullQuality = "1"
vmotion.svga.logicOps = "1"
vmotion.svga.bc67 = "9"
vmotion.svga.sm5 = "1"
vmotion.svga.multisample8x = "1"
vmotion.svga.logicBlendOps = "1"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:dd:43:77"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"
vmci0.id = "1071465335"
monitor.phys_bits_used = "45"
cleanShutdown = "FALSE"
softPowerOff = "FALSE"
sata0:1.startConnected = "FALSE"
usb:1.speed = "2"
usb:1.present = "TRUE"
usb:1.deviceType = "hub"
usb:1.port = "1"
usb:1.parent = "-1"
usb_xhci:4.present = "TRUE"
usb_xhci:4.deviceType = "hid"
usb_xhci:4.port = "4"
usb_xhci:4.parent = "-1"

 


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