ASP Developer Network - Brought to you by Steve Radich and BitShop, Inc. - http://www.bitshop.com

ASPDeveloper

ASPDeveloper.Net / VirtualServerFAQ.COM

Make sure you go to our home page for:

* Virtual Server 2005 FAQ
* ASP.Net 2.0 Information
* ASP.Net 2.0 Streaming Tutorials
* ASP.Net 2.0 HTML based Tutorials

Made possible by Business Internet Technology Shop (BitShop)

Virtual PC

Recent Virtual PC posts

* Copying VHD to a different Host machine leads to OLD VM view
* Virtual PC shuts down.
* Sharing Folders Via Network Folder
* Using VM for Training Exercise
* Drag and drop does not work when the user changed
* Windows updates Fail to install
* Mini newsgroup FAQ for the week of 11/9/2008
* How to install windows NT 4.0 to microsoft VM 7 sp1
* Virtual PC 2007:Vista SP1 Performs Unacceptable,Vista w/o SP1 Run Well
* VPC 2007 SP1 doesn"t work with Vista Ultimate?
* Installing XP Pro on VPC
* Finding VPC Quicken data files on a G5 Imac using OSX finder
* Strange multi_monitor behavior
* how to minimize the virtual PC screen and connect to a network
* Virtual PC 2007 Dynamically expanding Hard Disk
* Aero
* Is it possible to have "Save state" and delete changes at the same time?
* XP plug-in
* Hide Window?
* External Hard Drive vs Flash Drive

Add Solution

Move same VPC between different physical machines?

Source: microsoft.public.virtualpc
Sent: 11/11/2008
From: Paul <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Is there any way where I can store my Virtual PC on an external hard
drive, and use that same VPC on different multiple machines?

Eg work on my laptop when travelling and then save and merge and then
start that machine on my desktop when in the office?

I don't mind a different VMC file for each physical machine even, it's
just that making the same data available when I restart the the VPC on
a new machine seems next to impossible to me.

regards,
Paul.

Post Reply | This is Spam! | Mark as Spam

Related Messages

Re: Move same VPC between different physical machines?

Sent: 11/11/2008
From: Paul <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

thanks for your response Bo.

When I attempted to open the VMC on the 2nd machine it responded that
files were "locked" by another machine. I assumed thismeant the VMC
knows about the hardware it expects.

When I copied the VMC and used this one it worked, however it created
a new undo disk and would not allow me to merge this when shutting
down. Therefore when I moved the disk back to the original machine
and opened the original VMC, it knows nothing about the undo disk and
simply starts the VPC with it's own new undo disk.

Therefore I can get both VMCs sharing the same base VHD, but just not
both being able to use the same change set.

It sounds like what you are doing is exactly what I want to be doing.

Maybe it's Vista not allowing Admin access to the files as I am
appearing as a different user on the 2 physical machines?

regards,
Paul.

Re: Move same VPC between different physical machines?

Sent: 11/11/2008
From: Paul <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

> Sure. Just copy the .VHD file.

Thanks for yor response Robert, however I want to use the same VHD and
move backwards and forwards between the 2 physical machines, with the
VPC in the same state on each machine.

regards,
Paul.

Re: Move same VPC between different physical machines?

Sent: 11/11/2008
From: "Steve Jain [MVP]" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:59:17 -0800 (PST), Paul <(email address - cut out)>
wrote:

You can't move a saved state between systems.

Also, the Undo info is stored in the VMC file, so that's why you're
seeing new undo disks created.

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

Show quoted text

>thanks for your response Bo.
>
>When I attempted to open the VMC on the 2nd machine it responded that
>files were "locked" by another machine. I assumed thismeant the VMC
>knows about the hardware it expects.
>
>When I copied the VMC and used this one it worked, however it created
>a new undo disk and would not allow me to merge this when shutting
>down. Therefore when I moved the disk back to the original machine
>and opened the original VMC, it knows nothing about the undo disk and
>simply starts the VPC with it's own new undo disk.
>
>Therefore I can get both VMCs sharing the same base VHD, but just not
>both being able to use the same change set.
>
>It sounds like what you are doing is exactly what I want to be doing.
>
>Maybe it's Vista not allowing Admin access to the files as I am
>appearing as a different user on the 2 physical machines?
>
>regards,
>Paul.

Re: Move same VPC between different physical machines?

Sent: 11/11/2008
From: Robert Riebisch <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Paul wrote:

Sure. Just copy the .VHD file.

--
Robert Riebisch
Bitte NUR in der Newsgroup antworten!
Please reply to the Newsgroup ONLY!

Show quoted text

> Is there any way where I can store my Virtual PC on an external hard
> drive, and use that same VPC on different multiple machines?

Re: Move same VPC between different physical machines?

Sent: 11/11/2008
From: Bo Berglund <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:16:45 -0800 (PST), Paul <(email address - cut out)>
wrote:

Yes, I do this all the time....
1) When you create the virtual machine, make sure you point the Wizard
to the detachable USB hard disk for storing *both* the VMC and VHD
files.

2) When you are done creating the virtual machine all files will
reside on the detachable hard drive, so you can use it all you like
and then shut it down.

3) Now attach the drive to a new PC also with VPC2007 installed. Then
tell VPC you want to add an existing guest and navigate to the VMC
file on the detachable drive.

4) When you start it on the new PC you will have the exact same guest
as you shut down in 2 above (not surprising since it uses the same
files)

I have my development system installed on an XP-Pro VM on a USB2
connected 2.5" 160 Gb drive and it works just fine.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Show quoted text

>Is there any way where I can store my Virtual PC on an external hard
>drive, and use that same VPC on different multiple machines?
>
>Eg work on my laptop when travelling and then save and merge and then
>start that machine on my desktop when in the office?
>
>I don't mind a different VMC file for each physical machine even, it's
>just that making the same data available when I restart the the VPC on
>a new machine seems next to impossible to me.
>

Re: Move same VPC between different physical machines?

Sent: 11/12/2008
From: Bo Berglund <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:59:17 -0800 (PST), Paul <(email address - cut out)>
wrote:

I don't use Vista neither in the guest nor in the host...
But I definitely use the guest on both a laptop and my main system.
However, I do shut down the guest when I stop using it. No saved
state.

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Show quoted text

>It sounds like what you are doing is exactly what I want to be doing.
>
>Maybe it's Vista not allowing Admin access to the files as I am
>appearing as a different user on the 2 physical machines?
>

Re: Move same VPC between different physical machines?

Sent: 11/20/2008
From: Paul <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Thanks to all for your responses.

I tried a few more things and as I had guessed it seems the problem
was due to limited file access for the laptop user.

NB I was using 2 VMC files to reflect the different hardware on each
host, RAM, network card etc.

The laptop and the desktop are not on a domain (but are both running
Vista) and the VHD was created by the first user on the desktop. He
could then start the VMC, shut it down and merge his VUD file into the
VHD no problem.

Now when the laptop user came and started up his VMC - it also all
worked fine except when he shut down and tried to merge he did not
have "modify" access to the VHD file and so it was effective read-only
for him. Therefore
1) the changes could not be merged into the VHD and
2) as the VUD file was not known by the desktop user's VMC it was not
used by it and all work done on the laptop was not visible
3) any subsequent work done on the desktop meant the laptop VUD was
not compatible with the newly merged VHD.

So to cut a long story short, adding Modify access for the laptop user
to the folder meant both users could merge into the same VHD file and
the external drive is now fully transportable between systems.

Hope this helps someone.

cheers,
Paul.

Post Reply | This is Spam! | Mark as Spam

Other groups

Virtual PC (Mac)(3592)	Virtual PC(12844)	Virtual PC (French)(496)
Virtual Server 2005(6245)

Our Sponsors

Virtual Server 2005 Info Here!
http://www.aspdeveloper.net

Wiki

Blogs

Articles

Image galleries

File galleries

Forums

Maps

Directories

ASP Developer Network (since 1996) - Brought to you by Steve Radich and BitShop, Inc. - http://www.bitshop.com
Copyright © 1997-2005 by BitShop, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
No content may be reproduced in any form without written permission from BitShop, Inc.
We will be honored to assist with reproduction rights on our material if you contact us.
We also can provide print articles for your magazine, private training seminars at your site, and conference presentations.
Thank you for visiting. Please bookmark our site if you found it useful!
If you wish to make a donation it will help further the development of these free resources: