If you have a dual-boot system and want to use a virtual machine to boot a previously installed operating system (such as Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, or Windows 2000) from an existing partition, you must set up "real" and "virtual" hardware profiles. Certain operating systems use hardware profiles to load the appropriate drivers for a given set of hardware devices. VMware recommends using them only if you are familiar with Workstation virtual machines and the Windows hardware profiles concept. Also, if you haven't already done so, look at the information about configuring dual- or multi-boot systems to run with Workstation before proceeding.
Each virtual machine provides a platform that consists of the following set of virtual devices:
This set of virtual devices is different from the set of real hardware devices and is independent of the underlying hardware with a few exceptions (the processor itself is such an exception). This feature provides a stable platform and allows operating system images installed within a virtual machine to be migrated to other virtual machines, regardless of the configuration of the real machine.
If an operating system is installed directly into a Workstation virtual machine, the operating system will properly detect all the virtual devices by scanning the hardware. However, if an operating system is already preinstalled on the real machine (such as in a dual-boot configuration), the operating system will already be configured with the real hardware devices. In order to boot such preinstalled operating systems in a virtual machine, you will need to create separate hardware profiles in order to simplify the boot process.
Microsoft operating systems (including Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000) have the notion of hardware profiles. Each hardware profile is associated with a set of known devices. If more than one hardware profile exists, the user is prompted to choose between different hardware profiles at boot time. Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 use Plug and Play at boot time to confirm that the actual devices match the chosen hardware profile. Mismatches lead to the automatic detection of new devices. Although this operation succeeds, it can be a fairly slow one. Windows NT does not have Plug and Play support and uses the hardware profiles to initialize its devices. Mismatches will lead to errors reported by the device drivers and the devices are disabled.
To set up hardware profiles for your real and virtual machines, VMware recommends that you follow these steps.
A "New Hardware Detected" dialog box appears as Plug and Play runs and discovers the virtual hardware. Windows will prompt you for locations to search for device drivers. Most of the device drivers will be available in the existing operating system installation, but you may need the installation CD-ROM for some networking device drivers.
Windows will also ask you to reboot your system several times as it installs the device drivers. In some instances, Windows may not recognize the CD-ROM drive when it prompts you to insert the CD-ROM to look for device drivers during the initial hardware detection. In such cases, you can cancel the installation of the particular device or try pointing to C:\windows\system\ to search for device drivers on the hard disk. Any failed device installations may be performed at a later time after the CD-ROM drive is recognized.
After Windows has installed the virtual hardware and its drivers, you can remove the failed devices corresponding to the real hardware using the Device Manager (Control Panel > System > Device Manager tab). Select the device then click the Remove button. If a device appears in multiple hardware profiles, you can select the hardware profile(s) from which to remove the device.
Note: The next time you reboot Windows natively using the "Real Machine" hardware profile, some virtual devices may appear in the device list. You can disable or remove these virtual devices from "Real Machine" hardware profile in the same way that you removed real devices from the "Virtual Machine" hardware profile.
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