How to Mount Windows XP (inside Fusion) from Mac OS?

[rmschne]

My hunch is that the answer to this is in plain sight, but darn if I can't find it.

I know how to get into the Mac OS file system from my Windows XP running inside VMware Fusion (latest version 2.x). I'm trying to figure out how to get into the Windows XP file system from Mac OS side, e.g. from Finder. I've found references to vmdkmounter.app and VMDKMounter and vmdk files. I can't find a command VMDKMounter on my Mac using Spotlight of command "locate".

How does this work? Is there a place that I can read about this?

Thanks!

[admin]

vmdkmounter.app is located in /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/

That's used to mount your virtual disk. If you Ctrl+Click on your virtual machine .vmwarevm you'll get the option to "Open With" you can then browse to that vmdkmounter.app and choose that to open it. That should mount your virtual machine's disk on the desktop as if it were a hard drive.

BTW: You'll only be able to use that app if the vm is powered off

[rmschne]

Andrew,

Terrific! My hunch was that the answer was in clear view and in fact it was. Works. Thanks.

Interestingly, I received email notification of your answer on this and the "BTW" note was excluded. So on first try I was not successful. I came back to this online forum and I saw where the instance has to be shutdown. Indeed, it does.

[admin]

No worries, I had decided to add that after the fact just in case.

[rmschne]

Snag. The filesystem is there under /Volumes, but it is "read only". How to mount to enable read?

[WoodyZ]

Snag. The filesystem is there under /Volumes, but it is "read only". How to mount to enable read?

I'll assume you actually meant to say Read & Write...

Have you read the documentation?, obviously not!

Have a look at: VMware Fusion (menu bar) > Help > VMware Fusion Help > Managing Virtual Machines > Using VMDKMounter to Mount a Virtual Disk as a Mac Volume

[rmschne]

Woody,

Thanks. What a smart chap you are to make the correct assumption about what I want! Yes, I want to have read/write access to NTFS from OS X. However you are wrong about me not reading the documentation. I just could not find what it was I was looking for. That particular section of the electronic document escaped my attention. Hence my call for guidance. My hunch about it being right in front of me turns out to be true.

I will investigate NTFS-3G. (Although I'm puzzled by in the VMware Fusion documentation they give warnings about Boot Camp since, again a hunch, if one uses VMware, then Boot Camp isn't needed.

I'm not also remembering the difficulty of NTFS partitions for things other than Windows, e.g. Linux.

Thanks for your help.

[WoodyZ]

I will investigate NTFS-3G. (Although I'm puzzled by in the VMware Fusion documentation they give warnings about Boot Camp since, again a hunch, if one uses VMware, then Boot Camp isn't needed.

I believe Boot Camp is mentioned in conjunction with NTFS-3G because in some cases once it is installed one might not have the ability to select the Boot Camp partition as the Startup Disk under OS X System Preferences and I can tell you from personal use that having installed and used NTFS-3G on different Mac's with different software builds it has affected it on some but not on others so it may or may not be applicable to you in your particular situation but at least you've been warned.