Vista - Virtual Disks Trouble

Hello all, I looked through the posts and didn't see anything helpful so
hopefully I didn't miss it.

Background info:
Host - Win2k3 Enterprise OS w/ 4gb of memory. 2-500gb drives in a Raid 0.

I successfully installed MS Virtual Server 2005 R2 on the host. I then
attempted to create a virtual server and I am unable to create a 240gb
virtual hard drive. I need this much space for an Exchange recovery test I am
doing. Also, the drive that has the space I need is not drive 0 on the
server, it is drive 1 which is using F: for the drive letter.

Any ideas why I am unable to create a virtual disk? Oddly, when I attempted
to create the virtual disk first before creating the virtual server it
looked like that worked. However, when I then tried to create a virtual
server I was unable to select the virtual disk.

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated. If more details are needed
please let me know.

Thanks in advance.
-Caryn

Are your virtual disk's IDE or SCSI? Have you reviewed:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/kb00903748.aspx
"The maximum size for a virtual hard disk is 2,040 gigabytes (GB). However,
any virtual hard disk attached to the IDE controller cannot exceed 127
gigabytes (GB). To support a larger virtual hard disk size, attach the
virtual hard disk to a SCSI adapter. When deciding whether to attach
multiple virtual hard disks to the virtual IDE adapter or a virtual SCSI
adapter, we recommend attaching to one or more SCSI adapters to improve disk
input/output (I/O) performance. IDE is limited to one transaction at a time,
regardless of whether the bus is physical or virtual."

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/kb00903748.aspx
"Use virtual SCSI hard disks instead of virtual IDE hard disks
When you configure virtual machines, use virtual SCSI disks instead of
virtual IDE hard disks. A virtual SCSI disk can make disk activity perform
up to 20 percent better. A traditional IDE hard disk is limited to one
transaction at a time on the bus. A SCSI disk can handle multiple
transactions at the same time on the bus. Therefore, we recommend that you
use SCSI virtual hard disks when you can."

"Caryn Condon" <CarynCondon@newsgroup> wrote in message
news:24EDD5A0-5E8C-4C08-B867-24AFD645708C@newsgroup

Hello!
Thanks for the info. I just read about the size limitations on the IDE's.
I'm new to using virtual machines so I am learning as I go. At this point I
am trying to figure out how to create a virtual scsi disk since I am unsure
how to do so.

Do you know if I can create a virtual scsi disk ahead of time to install the
guest os?

I was able to successfully install a guest os (Win2k3 Ent) on a 10gb virtual
IDE disk. Rather than go through another guest os install I would be willing
to add a "second virtual scsi disk" to that virtual machine. Is that possible?

Thank you for your input.
-Caryn

"Mltwwlco@newsgroup" wrote:

On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:14:01 -0700, Caryn Condon
<CarynCondon@newsgroup> wrote:
Use the Admin too to create a new drive.
1. Under Virtual Disks, click Create
2. Click Dynamically expanding or fixed
3. Under location, select the location of the VM you want to add
the drive to. If it's not there enter the full path and filename
under Virtual hard disk file name
4. Change your size to 240GB and click OK

5. Shutdown the VM you want to attach the drive to. You cannot
make changes while the system is running or in a saved state, it must
be completely shut down.

6. Under Virtual Machines, click Configure and click the VM's
name
7. Under the config section, select SCSI adapters and click Add
SCSI adapter and click OK
8. Now click Hard disks, click Add disk >>
9. Under Attachment, select your new SCSI adapter
10. Either find the new disk under "known VHD" or enter the full
path and filename from step 3.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

Hello,

Thank you for the information. That definitely helped and I was able to
build the server with the 240gb drive.

Your assistance is much appreciated!!!

"Steve Jain [MVP]" wrote: