Installing Virtual Image to the Physical Disk

[shbhm]

Hi All,

I have a vmware virtual image of windows 2000 x64 server. In this operating system, I have installed SAP IDES ECC 6.0 with EHP4. I am running vmware workstation on windows 7 i.e. I am virtually running windows 2000 in windows 7. Its running very slow and due to this, its very hard to work on SAP. So, I wanted to install the virtual image into my physical drive i.e. I want to install all the contents of my virtual image (windows 2000 x64 server with SAP) in my hard disk physically. Is it possible to achieve? If it is, please explain the steps to do so.

Thanks & Regards

Shubham Singh

SAP Certified HCM Associate

[continuum]

the VM will not run significantly faster if you run it from a physical disk.
What type of vmdk do you use now ?
For best performance you should use preallocated vmdks

[mfelker]

Ull:

    Jus for curiosity if you did  use an expanding .vmdk on a physical partiton   could you access the excees disk space - for example by using progrfams like ultradefrag (free) that can  place all of the bytes (including system files if possiblke   I assume) at the top  the top of the partiton?  Seem very  unlikely but you never know.

[continuum]

Hi Marty
sorry - I do not understand your question - please rephrase it

[shbhm]

Sorry guys if you didn't get what I asked. Let me rephrase my question:

I want to install windows 2000 into my system from the virtual machine, so that I can use it directly without using vmware. And I want to do that from my virtual image which contains windows 2000 x64 server with SAP installed in it.

I hope you get it now.

[continuum]

Windows 2000 x64 is a very rare version. Are you sure you have all the drivers for that version ?

Basically that is possible - but with 2000 x64 you may have to a lot of research first

[shbhm]

Thanks for your reply.

I can download the drivers from the internet that's not an issue.

By "Basically that is possible - but with 2000 x64 you may have to a lot of research first" what do you mean??

How can I install windows 2000 from a virtual image to my disk drive and what do you mean by research??

[continuum]

step 1: clone to content of the vmdk to a real harddisk - there are several ways to do that - I would attach the harddisk inside a USB-enclosure to the host running Workstation now.
Then you could clone disk to disk with a Linux LiveCD

step 2: for this you need a BartPE Windows LiveCD and some experience with adding drivers to an offline image

... or another approach: sysprep the Windows 2000 - in case sysprep supports that version and then clone disk to disk after that

[shbhm]

Thanks for your reply.

I didn't get the solution. I know I am a fool. Please can you explain how to clone the contents of vmware virtual image

[continuum]

can you attach the physical drive of the future 2000 x64 machine to your host that runs Workstation now ?

[shbhm]

I can create a seperate partition on my hard disk drive for windows 2000, if this is what you asking for.

I have a 1tb HDD in which I am planning to have windows 7 and windows 2000(windows 2000 and sap from the vmware virtual image).

[continuum]

I would highly recommend to use a new physical drive which MUST be slightly larger than the current virtual disk.

Do you know sysprep or BartPE ?

[shbhm]

Ok I will add another HDD to my system. But I don't know about sysprep or BartPE. Please help.

[continuum]

oh dear - without knowledge of sysprep or BartPE I see no chance to manage this task.

Cant you continue to run this VM as is ?

[shbhm]

Thanks for your continuous support anyway.

[mfelker]

Sorry for geting t back to you so very late .  Here's an  example of what I'm trying to say.  You have  one logical  partiiton available for installing  a VM on the physical disk using this partition. The  physical partion size itself is 40 GB.  But you only need to install a Windows XP (or some other small footprint OS) which takes  only 10GB of  space.  Could you use the  free space on the 40GB parition (I know the .vmdk itself can't expandor contract ). for   other purposes (data storage for the host maybe).  In  other   word s does installing  a VMware  virtual disk on a physical partiiton make the VM containing  partiton unavaliable for  other purposes.  Assume you can't  delete an extended parrtion and create a new smaller partiiton for XP. This would be a pretty rare situtaion but   if you have limited physical disk space might be needed.

[continuum]

> In  other   word s does installing  a VMware  virtual disk on a  physical partiiton make the VM containing  partiton unavaliable for   other purposes.

of course not - if you use a vmdk you can use the unused space for other files.

If you assign a physical partition to a guest by using it as physical disk then you MUST unmount that partition on the host - otherwise you would get a corrupted filesystem pretty soon - so you can not use it for other files either