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Selecting a Disk Type
You can select the type of disk that the virtual machine will use:
- Virtual Disk: A virtual
disk is a file on the host file system that contains all data stored in the
virtual IDE or SCSI drive visible to the guest operating system. A virtual disk
can be created on any type of disk (IDE, SCSI, etc.) and any type of file
system (E2FS, FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc.) supported by the host operating system.
The virtual disk can also be created on a removable disk drive or placed on a
network file server. The
Configuration Wizard will place the virtual disk in the virtual machine directory that you
specify. Virtual disks can be as large as 128GB for IDE virtual hard disks and
256GB for SCSI virtual hard disks. Workstation creates a file for each
2000MB of virtual disk capacity. The actual files used by the virtual disk start out
small and grow to the maximum size as needed. Virtual disks can be set up as IDE
disks for any guest operating system. They can be set up as SCSI disks for any guest
operating system that has a driver for the BusLogic SCSI adapter used in a Workstation
virtual machine. A virtual disk of either type can be stored on either type of
physical hard disk. That is, the files that make up an IDE virtual disk can be stored
on either an IDE hard disk or a SCSI hard disk (or any other kind of fast storage).
So can the files that make up a SCSI virtual disk. A key advantage of virtual disks
is their portability. Because the virtual disks are stored as files on the host
machine or a remote computer, you can move them easily to a new location on the
same computer or to a different computer.
- Existing Physical Disk:
An existing physical
disk or raw disk is a partition on a physical IDE or SCSI
drive connected to the host computer. You use raw disks if you want Workstation
to run one or more guest operating systems from existing disk partitions.
Raw disks may be set up on both IDE and SCSI devices. At this time, however,
booting from an operating system already set up on an existing SCSI disk or
partition is experimental. If an existing partition is empty, you
can install an operating system in the partition. If the host is a dual-boot or
multi-boot system, then bootable partitions on the host computer can also be
booted within the virtual machine. If you select this option, you can also
choose to hide the type of read-only disk partitions
from other operating systems.
- Plain Disk. Workstation 2.0 offered an experimental disk type called
plain disk. In Workstation 2.0, virtual disks could be no larger than 2GB. Plain
disks provided a way to create larger disks for the virtual machine. Workstation 3.0
allows you to create large disks -- up to 128GB for IDE virtual hard disks or
256GB for SCSI virtual hard disks -- as virtual disks. Consequently,
we do not recommend creating plain disks for your virtual machines.
Virtual machines with plain disks created in Workstation 2.0 will run
under Workstation 3.0.
VMware recommends that new users gain experience with the product by
initially installing a guest operating system on a virtual disk because virtual
disks are easier to set up and use. However, be aware that it is not possible
to convert an entire virtual disk to a raw disk or vice versa.
Note:
Using an existing disk partition is recommended for advanced users only.
By default, when you select to create a virtual disk option, Workstation
creates a persistent virtual disk. You can use the Configuration Editor to change the disk mode to undoable or nonpersistent. You
can install a new operating system onto the virtual disk file without
repartitioning a physical disk or even rebooting the host system. Virtual disks
are limited to a maximum of 128GB for IDE virtual hard disks or 256GB for SCSI
virtual hard disks.
Note: Workstation does
not support using existing disk partitions on RAID or network disk drives. Use
of existing disk partition on SCSI disk drives is experimental at this time.
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