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Configuring IDE Drives
Virtual hard drives and CD-ROMs are added and removed using
the IDE drives panel in the configuration editor.
The content of a virtual hard drive may be stored in a file or in a set of
existing partitions on a host hard disk. The virtual CD-ROM
is connected to the CD-ROM device on the host.
Normally a virtual machine has at least one
virtual hard drive (and in most cases also one virtual
CD-ROM drive). If you have neither, you may still boot
from a floppy. If you don't have a floppy either, the virtual
machine will not be able to boot.
For more information on the different disk modes see
our web site.
Follow these steps to add a virtual IDE drive:
- Open the VM configuration editor.
- Click the expansion button to the left of IDE drives.
- Click the IDE drive that you wish to define or
modify.
You can use any device type with any of the four slots.
However, you should not install a device in the "slave" slots IDE:0.1
(also called P-S or Primary Slave) or IDE:1.1 (also called
S-S or Secondary Slave) unless the corresponding master slot
(IDE:0.0 and IDE:1.0 respectively) also contains a device.
If you do this, the VM will not be able
to boot, and you will be asked to correct the problem.
A common convention is to use the first slot for a hard drive
and the third slot for a CD-ROM drive.
- Click Install.
- Follow one set of steps below, depending on what you're adding.
- Click OK to exit the configuration editor, or continue
to add or modify other features.
Follow these steps to install a hard drive stored in
a file:
- Choose Virtual Disk as the disk type.
- Choose a disk mode.
The default is
persistent. The undoable mode may use additional disk
space until changes are committed or discarded.
Nonpersistent mode may also use additional temporary space.
- Enter a name for the disk.
- In the Capacity field, specify the maximum size
for the disk file.
The specified size is the
maximum capacity of your disk. The actual disk
file is initially much smaller, and grows as you
add data to it, up to the specified maximum.
The disk should be large enough to contain the guest
operating system and any applications and data you will
need. Choose the size carefully, because
once a disk is created, its maximum size can never be
changed (you can, however, add more virtual disks in unused
slots).
- Click Create.
To install a CD-ROM:
- Follow the initial steps above to add an IDE drive.
- Choose CD-ROM as the disk type.
- Select which CD-ROM drive you want to be used by the
virtual machine.
Often, but not always, the device name for the
CD-ROM is /dev/cdrom.
Some computers such as laptops have CD-ROM drives that can
be removed. To disable access to the CD-ROM when the VM is
powered on, uncheck the Start Connected box in the
disk configuration panel. To disable or enable access to
the CD-ROM drive while a virtual machine is running use the
Settings > Removable Devices menu. This can also be
done from within the virtual machine if the VMware Toolbox
has been installed. See see our web site to download a copy of the
tools.
To install a virtual hard drive stored in a set of existing
partitions:
- Follow the initial steps above to add an IDE drive.
- Click Add
- Choose Existing Disk Partition as the disk type.
- Select which disk you want the virtual machine to
use.
The IDE devices are usually named /dev/hda,
/dev/hdb, etc.
- Enter a path for the raw disk file in the
Name. This file contains information about the disk
being used, including its name and which partitions are
available to the virtual machine.
- Click Create.
- Click the Partitions button to
specify which disk partitions are accessible to the
virtual machine.
The Hide read only partitions from the guest operating
system option is useful if you are running multiple
operating systems at the same time, and you are not running
an advanced boot manager, such as PowerQuest's BootMagic or
V Communication's System Commander. For example, if you are
running Windows NT from a FAT partition, and you boot
Windows 98 from another partition, Windows 98 sees the
partition that Windows NT is running on, and attempts to
repair that file system. This may damage your disk and/or
cause your computer to crash. Partition Hiding is not made
available if the guest operating system is MS-DOS or Linux
because these operating systems do not attempt to
automatically file check other FAT partitions.
Some advanced boot managers, but not basic boot managers
such as LILO or NT MultiBoot, solve this problem by changing
the partition type of all the partitions not needed by the
operating system being booted to "unknown" type. If you are
not using a boot manager, then selecting Disk Partition
Hiding has the same effect.
When this option is enabled, only the partitions for which
the virtual machine has Read/Write access are visible to the
guest operating system. The other partitions are changed to
"unknown" type. In addition, all writes to the Master Boot
Record (MBR) where this information is recorded, are
intercepted. This allows multiple operating systems to run
on the same disk, but with different views of the same
partitions.
Because of this feature, however, one of these advanced boot
manager program run inside a virtual machine with Disk
Partition Hiding enabled will not function properly. If
you wish to use an advanced boot manager program, or install
a new boot manager from within a virtual machine, then the
Disk Partition Hiding option should be turned off.