VMware Workstation 5.0

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Configuring a Dual-Boot Computer for Use with a Virtual Machine

Many users install VMware Workstation on a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer so they can run one or more of the existing operating systems in a virtual machine. If you are doing this, you may want to use the existing installation of an operating system rather than reinstall it in a virtual machine.

To support such installations, VMware Workstation makes it possible for you to use a physical IDE disk or partition, also known as a raw disk, inside a virtual machine.

Note: VMware Workstation supports booting from raw disk partitions only on IDE drives. Booting guest operating systems from raw SCSI drives is not supported. For a discussion of the issues on a Linux host, see Configuring Dual- or Multiple-Boot SCSI Systems to Run with VMware Workstation on a Linux Host.

Setting up a raw disk configuration for a virtual machine is more complicated than using a virtual disk. Virtual disks are recommended unless you have a specific need to run directly from a physical disk or partition.

Caution: Raw disks are an advanced feature and should be configured only by expert users.

This section describes the following topics

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