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#1
Virtual Machine Hard Drive Space Questions
So, I am kind of new to virtual machines and I have been playing around with them with the basics the last few weeks, but I have a few related questions and I have been reading about VMs all over the web and I just can't understand all the stuff about 'virtual disks' and all that stuff. I have been playing with VMWare and Oracle's VirtualBox, doing basic creating VMs from ISOs (linux distros and what not), but recently I have been trying to play with some Windows VMs (XP, 7, 8) and it's a bit more difficult for me. For one thing, I had to download all the 32 bit versions because apparently my system dosen't support VMs for 64 bit VTs or something(?). Anyway, my question is when I create a VM in either Virtualization software, it creates a 'virtual disk' on my hard drive my native OS is on (Windows 7 64bit). A virtual disk, as I understand, is basically a virtual hard drive that the VM OS uses as a physical drive. So I am basically creating 'partitions' for these VMs on my 60gig SSD that my Windows 7 is on. Problem is, this takes up so much space, even if I use the dynamic expansion disk options, just using the amount of disk space needed and not a fixed space size. So these Windows VMs are like 8gigs+, I install 1-2 VMs and keep them configured on my machine so I don't have to install anytime I want to use them and my SSD is at max capacity. I have a 500gig 2nd storage drive. Is there a way to run the VMs off that drive, or just store the virtual disks there since I have a lot more space there? Or does it have to run on the same drive as my OS? Any suggestions on space conservation when it comes to VMs? Tips? Thanks.