4.0

6 (Optional) To exclude the disk from snapshots, select Independent for the mode and select a persistence
option.
Option Description
Persistent
Disks in persistent mode behave like conventional disks on a physical
computer. All data written to a disk in persistent mode is written
permanently to the disk.
Nonpersistent
Changes to disks in nonpersistent mode are discarded when you power off
or reset the virtual machine. With nonpersistent mode, you always restart
the virtual machine with a virtual disk in the same state. Changes to the disk
are written to and read from a redo log file that is deleted when you power
off or reset the virtual machine.
7 Set the capacity for the new virtual hard disk.
You can set a size between 0.001GB and 2TB for a virtual disk.
8 Specify how to allocate the disk space.
Option Description
Allocate all disk space now
Allocating all of the disk space when you create the virtual hard disk can
enhance performance, but it requires all of the physical disk space to be
available now. If you do not select this setting, the virtual disk starts small
and grows as you add data to it.
Store virtual disk as a single file
Select this option if the virtual disk is stored on a file system that does not
have a file size limitation.
Split virtual disk into multiple files
Select this option if the virtual disk is stored on a file system that has a file
size limitation. When you split a virtual disk less than 950GB, a series of 2GB
virtual disk files are created. When you split a virtual disk greater than
950GB, two virtual disk files are created. The maximum size of the first virtual
disk file is 1.9TB and the second virtual disk file stores the rest of the data.
9 Accept the default filename and location, or browse to and select a different location.
10 Click Finish to add the new virtual hard disk.
The wizard creates the new virtual hard disk. The disk appears to the guest operating system as a new,
blank hard disk.
11 Click OK to save your changes.
12 Use the guest operating system tools to partition and format the new drive.
Add an Existing Virtual Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine
You can reconnect an existing virtual hard disk that was removed from a virtual machine. You can add up to
four IDE devices and up to 60 SCSI devices. Any of these devices can be a virtual or physical hard disk or DVD
or CD-ROM drive.
Procedure
1 Select the virtual machine and select Virtual Machine > Virtual Machine Settings.
2 On the Hardware tab, click Add.
3 In the Add Hardware wizard, select Hard Disk.
4 Select Use an existing virtual disk.
5 Specify the path name and filename for the existing disk file.
6 Click Finish to add the existing virtual hard disk.
Chapter 6 Configuring and Managing Devices
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