VMware DISK MOUNT UTILITY WORKSTATION 5.5 User manual

User’s Manual

VMware DiskMount Utility

VMware, Inc.

3145 Porter Drive

Palo Alto, CA 94304

www.vmware.com

Please note that you will always find the most up-to-date technical

documentation on our Web site at http://www.vmware.com/support/.

The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates.

6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156 and 6,795,966; patents pending.

VMware, the VMware “boxes” logo and design, Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks or

trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. Microsoft, Windows and Windows

NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All

other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Revision 04082005 Item: ENG-Q105-086

Mounting Virtual Disks Outside of

Virtual Machines

The VMware DiskMount Utility allows you to mount an unused virtual disk in a

Windows host file system as a separate drive without needing to connect to the

virtual disk from within a virtual machine. You can mount specific volumes of a virtual

disk if the virtual disk is partitioned.

DiskMount is a command line program called vmware-mount that works similarly

to how you use the subst command on Windows. Once the disk is mounted, you

can read from and write to the disk as if it were a separate file system with its own

drive letter on your network. However, you cannot power on any virtual machine that

uses this disk until the disk is unmounted.

You can perform activities such as scanning a virtual disk for viruses and transferring

files between the host system and a powered off virtual machine.

When you are finished using the mounted virtual disk, delete the mapping so the

virtual disk can be used by virtual machines again.

Considerations for Mounting Virtual Disks

•You can use DiskMount with virtual disks created with VMware ESX Server 2,

VMware GSX Server 3 and 2.5.1, VMware ACE, and VMware Workstation 5 and 4.

Note: Virtual disks created with VMware ACE cannot be encrypted virtual disks.

Encrypted virtual disks cannot be mounted with DiskMount.

•You can run DiskMount on any versions of Windows 2000, Windows XP, or

Windows Server 2003.

•You must mount virtual disks as drive D: or greater. You cannot specify a letter

already in use on the host.

•You can mount volumes formatted with FAT (12/16/32) or NTFS only. If the

virtual disk has a mix of partitions (volumes) where, for example, a partition is

unformatted or is formatted with a Linux operating system and another partition

is formatted with a Windows operating system, you can mount the Windows

partition with DiskMount.

•You can mount a virtual disk that has a snapshot. Any changes you make to the

virtual disk while it is mounted are discarded when you revert to the snapshot.

•You cannot mount a virtual disk if any of its .vmdk files are compressed or have

read-only permissions. Change these attributes before mounting the virtual disk.

www.vmware.com

The DiskMount User’s Manual

•You cannot mount a virtual disk that is currently being used by a running or

suspended virtual machine. Only disks that are in a powered off virtual machine

can be mounted.

Statement of Support

The VMware DiskMount Utility is provided without support services from VMware

under the terms in the VMware DiskMount Utility license agreement.

Installing the VMware DiskMount Utility

The VMware DiskMount Utility is available as a free download from the VMware Web

site. To download DiskMount, go to www.vmware.com/download/diskmount.html.

Once you download the installer, run it on a Windows host machine. A VMware

virtualization product such as GSX Server or Workstation does not need to be installed

on the host.

Running the VMware DiskMount Utility

To run the VMware DiskMount Utility, open a command prompt on a Windows 2000,

Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 host, then change to the directory where you

installed the software.

The command syntax is:

vmware-mount [options] [drive letter:] [\\path\to\virtual

disk]

The options you can use include:

Option Definition

/v:N Mounts volume Nof a virtual disk. Ndefaults to 1.

/p Displays the partitions (volumes) on the virtual disk.

/d Deletes the mapping to a virtual disk drive volume.

/f Forcibly deletes the mapping to a virtual disk drive volume. Use this option

when a technical error or a correctable condition such as open file handles

prevents DiskMount from unmounting the drive.

/? Displays vmware-mount usage information.

Examples Using the VMware DiskMount Utility

Following are some examples that illustrate how to use DiskMount.

Mounting a Virtual Disk

Use this command to mount a virtual disk:

vmware-mount h: “C:\My Virtual Machines\w2003std.vmdk”

List Virtual Disk Volumes Currently Mounted

Use this command to review which virtual disks are mounted under DiskMount.

vmware-mount

Currently mounted volumes:

f:\ => “C:\My Virtual Machines\w2003std\w2003std.vmdk”

g:\ => “C:\My Virtual Machines\NT\NT.vmdk (volume 1)”

Mounting a Specific Volume in a Virtual Disk

Use this command to mount a specific volume in a virtual disk:

vmware-mount /v:2 h: “C:\My Virtual

Machines\w2003std.vmdk”

Unmounting a Virtual Disk

Use this command to unmount a virtual disk so virtual machines can access it again:

vmware-mount h: /d

www.vmware.com

The DiskMount User’s Manual

This manual suits for next models

Table of contents

Other VMware Software manuals

VMware

VMware VCENTER CHARGEBACK 1.5 - API User manual

VMware

VMware 4817V62 - vSphere - PC Instruction Manual

VMware

VMware CLOUD DIRECTOR 1.0 User manual

VMware

VMware VS4-STD-C - vSphere Standard - PC Instruction sheet

VMware

VMware GSX Server 3 Administration Instruction Manual

VMware

VMware VSHIELD ENDPOINT User manual

VMware

VMware SUSE LINUX ENTERPRISE SERVER User manual

VMware

VMware VmWare ESX Server 2.12 Deployment Quick reference guide

VMware

VMware VCENTER APPLICATION DISCOVERY MANAGER 6.1.1 -... Instruction Manual

VMware

VMware THINAPP 4.6 - MIGRATING APPLICATIONS TECHNICAL... User manual

VMware

VMware VSHIELD APP 1.0.0 UPDATE 1 - API User manual

VMware

VMware ESX 4.0 - GETTING STARTED UPDATE 1 General instructions

VMware

VMware VIEW 4.5 Manual

VMware

VMware VCLOUD SDK FOR JAVA 1.0 - DEVELOPER S GUIDE User manual

VMware

VMware VCLOUD REQUEST MANAGER User manual

VMware

VMware VCENTER APPLICATION DISCOVERY MANAGER 6.1 -... User manual

VMware

VMware COMPLIANCE CHECKER - DATASHEET FOR PCI DSS... User manual

VMware

VMware CLOUD COMPUTING - User manual

VMware

VMware THINAPP User manual

VMware

VMware VCENTER APPLICATION DISCOVERY MANAGER 6.0 User manual

VMware

VMware VCENTER CAPACITYIQ 1.5 User manual

VMware

VMware VCENTER APPLICATION DISCOVERY MANAGER 6.1.1 -... User manual

VMware

VMware VIEW 4.5 Installation and operation manual

VMware

VMware VCLOUD SDK 1.0 - FOR NET DEVELOPERS GUIDE User manual

Popular Software manuals by other brands

COMPRO

COMPRO COMPROFM manual

Muratec

Muratec OFFICEBRIDGE ONLINE user guide

Oracle

Oracle Contact Center Anywhere 8.1 installation guide

Adobe

Adobe 65007312 - Photoshop Lightroom Programmer's guide

Avaya

Avaya NULL One-X for RIM Blackberry user guide

HP ProLiant BL420c user guide

PS Audio

PS Audio PowerPlay Programming manual

Brady

Brady LOCKOUT PRO 3.0 Administrator's guide

Avaya

Avaya Interaction Center user guide

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments TI-83 Plus Silver Edition Guide book

Novell

Novell GROUPWISE 8 - INTERNET AGENT manual

Oracle

Oracle Application 9i Configuration guide

Acer

Acer RDM user guide

Canon

Canon Vixia HF21 instruction manual

Canon

Canon ZR950 instruction manual

Samsung

Samsung Auto Backup user manual

Polycom

Polycom Vortex EF2201 Application note

Brocade Communications Systems

Brocade Communications Systems Brocade 8/12c user manual