Damn! You keep on beating me. -----Original Message----- From: pctechtalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pctechtalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Gman Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 11:31 PM To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: VMs See below Peace, Gman http://www.bornagainamerican.org "The only dumb questions are the ones we fail to ask" ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lilian" <lilian.oswaldocruz@xxxxxxxxx> To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:26 PM Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: VMs ... > "Then, you install an operating system within it (on the > virtual hard drive space you dedicated when you set it up) and treat it > just > like any other operating system." > > How does this work? If you have 2 OSs you install one on the Virtual > Drive? > And the other stays where it is? But how do you access the OS in the VM? > Is the "main" computer´s OS (for instance, XP x32) the "gateway"? The problem you're having is that you're trying to imagine something far more complicated than it actually is. You install the VM software in your main system just like any other program. You then run the program and create a virtual 'space' that you will use for whatever OS you decide to run inside it (more on this later). Once that is set up, you can go ahead and install the virtual OS inside that space and have a second system at your disposal that you can use for nearly whatever you want (trying out different software without affecting your main OS, testing different tweaks to see how the OS will react/respond, running a web server without having to install it on your main system or even testing different operating systems without dealing with a multi-boot menu). Once it's all set up, you just start the Virtual PC program, select the VM you wish to run and click a button. The VM will start up in its own window and act just like the 'host' OS (except for the limitations of the 'hardware' the virtual software is emulating, as described well by Disastar in a previous reply). In other words, you use it just like any other piece of software. > I´ve been > looking at space, and found I may not have enough space the way it is at > the > moment. I have 2 X 250GB, but are both partitioned. I have 2 empty > partitions which could be put together and would give me 150GB. What > about > the partition where XP x64 is at the moment (80GB). I don´t quite grasp > this bit... I would have to remove (uninstall) one OS, create the virtual > environment in the space allocated for it then install the second OS > inside > this. Is that it??? The program itself resides in your Program Files folder, just like any other app you install. The VM's you create are stored in your My Documents folder by default, but I moved mine to their own dedicated area on another partition (I'll teach you how to do that, if you'd like). As I mentioned before, I have 3 VM setups. My WinXP Pro currently takes up just under 20GB of real hard drive space when it's not running. You can add another 3 -4 GB to that during the times when I have it running. Similarly, my Vista VM takes up just under 15GB when not in use and close to 20GB when I'm running it. I also have an empty VM (no OS installed) that only takes up 115KB of actual hard drive space. This last one grows to the size of whatever OS I choose to install on it, but that size is given right back to the real drive once I close out the program and tell it to delete the changes. My XP Pro setup is used primarily for testing shareware and currently has a bunch of installation files stored within it that I have yet to try out. As I test them, I'll be removing the install files and saving those changes. The loss of these files will allow the overall size of that VM to shrink over time (well, until I load it up with more files to test, of course). Since each VM requires a certain amount of my system's RAM for its own use and my system has only 2GB of memory, I only run one at a time so it doesn't bog down my 'host' system noticeably. That means the most hard drive space I will use is about 20G +15G + maybe 5G more during any given use. 40GB of hard drive space in order to run multiple operating system environments is not a bad trade at all and there's no rebooting required since it all happens within my main system. To be on the safe side, I tend to always leave an extra 20GB of free space on that partition. > Another question, is it possible to do all the above and knock 2 or 3 > partitions together without formatting the other partitions? Just being > lazy here <bg> I haven´t the time and inclination at the moment to go > through all the bother of reinstalling... XP x64 is still fairly empty > but > not XP X32!!! From your description of your current setup, there is no need for ANY repartitioning. Install the program, create an empty VM and then I'll show you how to move it to one of your more open partitions. Then you can install whatever you' like inside it and it'll grow on that wide open space you already have. > So, with a VM, when you fire it up it will use up RAM in addition to the > RAM > used by the host, instead of just one OS like in a dual boot. I will > deffinitely have to get more RAM... I only have 1.5 GB. Since you're running XP, I would suggest a minimum of 2GB of RAM, more if your system can handle it. I have all 3 of my VMs set to 'borrow' 736MB of the 2GB I have installed. Since I only run one at a time, my main system loses the use of that amount only during the times when I have one of the VM's running. If I had 3GB or more of RAM (impossible with my current motherboard), I'd be more inclined to either give my VMs a full gig or perhaps keep it as is, but run more than one VM at a time. > Anyway its a start :o)) Will catch up tomorrow! I'm sure you're aware that there's more to all of this than what we've discussed, but I'm trying to not overload you with too much info at once. Digest what I've added here and come back for more when you're ready. After my next reply, I'll be expecting you to actually install one of these virtual PC apps so you can learn the rest by actually doing it instead of just reading about it. ;) > Lil G --------------------------------------------------------------- Please remember to trim your replies (including this sentence and everything below it) and adjust the subject line as necessary. 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