Virtual disks are stored as files on the host computer or on a network file server. While you are working in VMware ACE Manager, the files can be on the host machine or on a remote computer. When an end user installs a package, the virtual disk files are always stored locally. It does not matter whether the physical disk that holds the files is IDE or SCSI. A virtual IDE drive can be stored on an IDE drive or on a SCSI drive. So can a virtual SCSI drive.

Use the virtual machine settings editor (VM > Settings) to add a new virtual disk to your virtual machine. The virtual machine should be powered off before you begin. If it is not, shut down the guest operating system normally, then click Power Off on the VMware ACE Manager toolbar.

Note: If you have a Windows NT 4.0 guest with a SCSI virtual disk, you cannot add both an additional SCSI disk and an IDE disk to the configuration.

1. Open the virtual machine settings editor (VM > Settings) and click Add. The Add Hardware Wizard guides you through the steps to create your virtual disk.
2. Click Hard Disk, then click Next.
3. Select Create a New Virtual Disk, then click Next.
4. Choose whether you want the virtual disk to be an IDE disk or a SCSI disk.
5. Set the capacity for the new virtual disk.

   If you wish, select Allocate all disk space now.

   Allocating all the space at the time you create the virtual disk gives somewhat better performance, but it requires as much disk space as the size you specify for the virtual disk.

   If you do not select this option, the virtual disk's files start small and grow as needed, but they can never grow larger than the size you set here.

   You can set a size between 2GB and 256GB for a SCSI virtual disk or 128GB for an IDE virtual disk. The default is 4GB.

   You may also specify whether you want the virtual disk created as one large file or split into a set of 2GB files. You should split your virtual disk if it may be stored on a FAT32 file system.

6. Accept the default filename and location for the virtual disk file or change it, if you want to use a different name or location. To find a different folder, click Browse.

   If you want to specify a device node for your virtual disk, click Advanced.

   On the advanced settings panel, you can also specify a disk mode. This is useful in certain special-purpose configurations in which you want to exclude disks from the snapshot. For more information on the snapshot feature, see Using the Snapshot.

   Normal disks are included in the snapshot. In most cases, this is the setting you want — with Independent deselected.

   Independent disks are not included in the snapshot. If you select Independent, you have the following options:

   • Persistent — Changes are immediately and permanently written to the disk.
   • Nonpersistent — Changes to the disk are discarded when you power off or revert to the snapshot.

     When you have set the filename and location you want to use and have made any selections you want to make on the advanced settings panel, click Finish.

7. The wizard creates the new virtual disk. It appears to your guest operating system as a new, blank hard disk. Use the guest operating system's tools to partition and format the new drive for use.