[KLUG Members] VMware

[Mike Slack]

Adam Williams (awilliam@whitemice.org) wrote:

> >I have a dual boot machine - win2k and linux.  If I use the OS Kit will
> >I be able to boot the win2k partition that I normally have to reboot
> >into?  Do you have any experience with data loss?
> 
> AFAIK, this is not possible,  although you could certainly try. PnP may 
> adjust all the hardware settings.  Under VM your WinY2k will have a 
> diffrent network adapter, video card, disk partitions (potentially).  I've 
> never tried this but been told by several people that it doesn't work very 
> well.  It is better to install to a virtual disk and copy your data over.

I have actually used this feature, and it does work!  Personally, I have never lost any data from it.  Earlier versions of VMWare made it virtually impossible to use, but now it seems pretty stable (though is still not the recommended default).  The key about hardware settings is that you have to go into your Windows hardware profiles and create a copy of the current hardware profile.  Then, when you boot Windows you will get a choice of which profile to use.  Give them names like "Real Machine" and "VMWare Virtual Machine".  Use one to boot Windows normally and the other to boot from VMWare.  Like Adam said, VMWare PnP will change lots of HW settings.

I would recommend, however, that if you are not attached to keeping your existing Windows installation, that you blow it away and start over with virtual disk as Adam suggested.  I wanted to keep the original Windows installation on my laptop because the DVD player won't work under VMWare, so when I want to use it (rarely), I boot into Windows normally.

Mike

-- 
Mike Slack
mike@slacking.org
--
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't
be called research, would it?" --Albert Einstein