Vista - using a VM on 2 different machines

Hi all,

I hope you can help me. I've had a look around and can't find the answer to
my question, but sorry if I have missed a post somewhere.

I have a desktop pc on which I keep my development VM that I add new things
to regularly. I am now going to be working away more regularly, so have
bought a laptop and want to be able to take my files with me when I go. I
have used the sync centre for all my other files, but because the VHD is 10gb
or so in size, sync regularly fails and when it does work takes ages to sync.
Also, I regularly get errors etc when trying to use the VM on the laptop,
mainly because I think it is trying to run the network file or needs it's own
settings file, etc. (the laptop is high spec, so that part I'm not worried
about).

My question is, is there a right way to do this? To have a VM that I use at
the office but then can easily take away with me in its up to date state?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Nyahoo wrote:You could keep the VM permanently on an external USB drive and run it
directly from there. The USB2 ones are pretty fast. You'd have to have
it formatted with NTFS because FAT32 won't allow a 10 Gig file.

One thing I did while I was frequently switching between my desktop and
laptop was to simply copy it to a USB2 Flash Drive. It takes only 5
minutes or so if you have a really fast one. I've got a OCZ Rally2 32GB one.

There's no "right way" to do it really. You've got two separate machines
and a huge file. You just need to know which machine has the latest and
copy it across. For the least effort solution though, I think the
permanent home on the USB drive is the easiest. Unfortunately the USB
Flash drives aren't quick enough to run from yet. They're quick enough
when copying the whole file in one operation, but not for dynamic
read/writes. You could try it though - I've done it, I've ran a VM from
a USB Flash Drive, but I wasn't happy with the performance. It wasn't
the USB pipe that was slowing it down, it was the Flash drive itself and
I know that the one I have (the Rally2) is one of the fastest available.
Well, it was when I got it a year ago. Maybe they've doubled or tripled
in performance by now

On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:49:01 -0700, Nyahoo
<Nyahoo@xxxxxx> wrote:
You should get yourself one of the cheap 2.5" external USB connected
hard drives. Connect it and skip all suggestions of software installs
that may pop up.
Instead go to DiskManager and format the drive with the NTFS file
system.

Then you *move* the VHD file of the virtual machine over to a folder
on that drive for further use.
Next, create a new virtual machine and make sure that the location of
the VMC file will be in the same folder as the VHD file. When time
comes for the virtual disk, just browse to the moved VHD file and
select it. Done!

By creating a new virtual machine this way you ensure that the VMC
file is correctly written.

Next disconnect the USB drive from your desktop (use the safe remove
function to make sure that there are no late write data still waiting
to be written to the disk).
Connect it to the laptop and start up VPC2007. Then use the add
function to add the virtual machine on the USB drive to your console.
You should also get rid of the *copy* you probably have lingering on
the local C drive.
Now the *same* virtual machine is registered in both PC:s. And since
it is a single physical VHD file you won't run into any Microsoft
licensing issues as you do when you copy the VM back and forth and
thus have 2 copies of it (not allowed).

Usage instructions:
- Use on a PC normally.
- When you are going to switch to the other PC make sure to first
completely shut down the virtual machine, because the saved state will
not survive a change of host hardware (mainly the CPU type).
- Then use the safe removal and relocate the USB drive to the other
PC.

Notice that since the virtual machine hard disk file is now no longer
on the host system drive it is likely that it will pergorm faster for
you than before.

Note: You might want to use DiskManger on both PC:s to set a drive
letter for the USB drive (same letter on both) so it will reconnect as
thta drive every time. Choose a high letter like U: so no other
gadgets will steal the drive letter....

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)