Fusion 1.1 Still Does Not Work With x64 Vista Boot Camp Partition

[bittondb]

Version 1.1 is still not working in the same way the previous version did not. The intitial preperation of the vhd fails. I then edit the vmx file, changing the guestOS value to "winvista-64" and removing the scsi present line. Sure the partition starts up, but eventually Visat blue screens. Could this be a HAL issue?

[admin]

The initial preparation of the virtual hard disk is necessary for the proper drivers to be installed, so a subsequent BSOD does not surprise me. Contents of /Users/yournamehere/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Helper/naos-1.0.vmwarevm/vmware.log ?

This is almost certainly not a HAL issue since we use the same HAL (ACPI) as the native case does.

Note that Apple only supports 32-bit versions of Windows with Boot Camp, and consequently we only support 32-bit versions of Windows with Boot Camp. I'm not saying 64-bit won't work, but it's definitely not a tested configuration.

[Pat_Lee]

Just like Apple, we only support 32-bit Vista in Boot Camp VMs at this time.

One major thing to keep in mind and a reson that Vista x64 is not supported today in Boot Camp VMs is that you would need to reactivate each time you switch back and forth between Boot Camp native and Boot Camp in a VM.

This is something we would have to look into for a future major release of VMware Fusion assuming Apple starts supporting x64 Vista in a future release of Boot Camp.

Best,

Pat Lee

Senior Product Manager - Mac Products

VMware

[bittondb]

Pat,

Thanks for the quick and honest reply. Reactivating each time would obviously become an issue because IIRC, you only receive a certain number of activations. I don't game and the three biggest apps I run are Photoshop, Visual Studio, and VMWare Workstation. Obviously only the former need be on Windows. Since I am running on a Mac Pro, I've become acustom to the performance of running Vista on bare metal. Would it be to my benefit to create a fresh Vista x64 and port over? Can I migrate my Boot Camp Vista install to a VM using a migration tool? Currently my Vista Boot Camp partition is on its own 500GB hard drive that only has 206GB free. Have you benchmarked a VM Vista vs. a Boot Camp Vista? What Vista performance rating does the VM version score?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave Bitton

[bittondb]

Does the log file contain confidential info? I'd prefer to email it. Thanks.

[admin]

Does the log file contain confidential info? I'd prefer to email it.

You can look it over first; if you decide it has sensitive information you can PM me.

[rcardona2k]

While you can port Vista from Boot Camp, if you want the best performance out of Fusion, try creating a new Fusion VM with a pre-allocated VMDK (with as much host disk as you can spare). You can defrag the VMDK with vmware-vdiskmanager or run iDefrag to make sure your OS X disk is optimized in general.

[bittondb]

Well, vmware converter failed. However I was able to do a full image backup using vista. The resulting backup file is 190gb. My vista boot camp part is on a seperate 500gb drive so if I'm brave enough to trust my backup, I'll format the drive and use the whole thing for fusion. Opinions?