vmware fusion - questions

fereak · Jan 1, 2008

Hi, I'm new to these forums so stop me if I'm wrong.

I've been reading around and have decided that vmware fusion seems like what i need, but I have a few questions.

1. Can I run the "virtual hard drive" thingy on an external drive? And if so is there a particular drive I should get?
I don't want to have windows nasty filing system filling up my internal drive.
2. Will it run all windows apps? i mainly want this for games so is there much stuff its incompatible with?
3. Am I wrong? should I not use fusion? Although from what i hear most people seem to think fusion's better...
4. Would it be possible to do this: get a 200GB external hard drive, use (say) 150GB for windows and the remaining 50GB for Linux or Free BSD etc?

I'd be very appreciative of any help, Thanks very much. ;D

NPuter · Jan 1, 2008

1) if you want to store the virtual hdd for the virtural machine on an external hdd and run it from there, as far as I know, yes (I have not tried it, but would be surprised if it was not possible) -a fast firewire drive would be ideal

2)yes it will run all windows apps as it is windows that you will be running (there is the exception of apps that may need higher graphics/system support or apps that just don't like the vmware virtual hardware/drivers)

3)VMware Fusion is a really cool app... I like it because I can use my bootcamp partition within os x

4)yes... you would just make a new virtual machine for windows (set its max size to 150GB) and then create another virtual machine for Linux and set its max size to 50GB

VMware fusion virtual hdd's do not take up all the space they are allowed to right at the start... what happens is you set a max size for that hdd and it only uses as much space as it needs up until the max size

so say you install windows, set the max size to 150GB, and windows is only using 5gb, your virtual disk will only be 5gb... understand??

fereak · Jan 1, 2008

NPuter said:
1) if you want to store the virtual hdd for the virtural machine on an external hdd and run it from there, as far as I know, yes (I have not tried it, but would be surprised if it was not possible) -a fast firewire drive would be ideal

2)yes it will run all windows apps as it is windows that you will be running (there is the exception of apps that may need higher graphics/system support or apps that just don't like the vmware virtual hardware/drivers)

3)VMware Fusion is a really cool app... I like it because I can use my bootcamp partition within os x

4)yes... you would just make a new virtual machine for windows (set its max size to 150GB) and then create another virtual machine for Linux and set its max size to 50GB

VMware fusion virtual hdd's do not take up all the space they are allowed to right at the start... what happens is you set a max size for that hdd and it only uses as much space as it needs up until the max size

so say you install windows, set the max size to 150GB, and windows is only using 5gb, your virtual disk will only be 5gb... understand??

I do indeed. Thanks very very much, I guess I'll be buying fusion now!

Sawday · Jan 1, 2008

I haven't got an external drive (yet) but for whats it's worth I'll just add my two pen'th (two cents worth for our cousins across the pond) that I've been very impressed with Fusion and once I figure how to get it to talk to my printers (connected on the mac side) I'll be extremely happy with it too!

PerryLynch · Jan 1, 2008

Another thing to remember is that the Windows filing system will all be contained within one file on your drive. And yes, that file can be as large as you allow it to be, but there is no reason for that. I created my windows folders with a maximum size of 40 GB, and they are currently at about 20 GB. I only loaded the business software that I need on it, and don't intend to use it for more than that.

giulio · Jan 2, 2008

You are all very generous! I set my max to 10GB. Though I only use XP for things that require IE, or access to MS SQL Server, or WinAmp. i dont really install/run any programs otherwise.

Hope for Chaos · Jan 2, 2008

Well I've been looking into fusion for a while now and actually its what turned me on to the possibility of getting a Mac since I'm a computer science major who needs windows. For your situation I would recommend bootcamp and if you're doing this on a macbook I would do it on the internal drive for portability and possibly performance. But if you are a heavy gamer who closes out all other programs and games then there would be no reason to stay in mac os x when you could boot to windows 'natively' and run them just as you would on a windows pc. I don't know the specifics of bootcamp but I know it comes in leopard and is pretty easy to get going. That's what I would suggest.

Neo · Jan 2, 2008

oh man...

If you are reading this thread to learn about Fusion, search to find a different thread on this forum (there are plenty). This particular thread is unfortunately not very accurate or useful. sorry

NPuter · Jan 3, 2008

Neo said:
oh man... If you are reading this thread to learn about Fusion, search to find a different thread on this forum (there are plenty). This particular thread is unfortunately not very accurate or useful. sorry

what is not accurate about this thread??

and also - thats a broken link