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Disk Type

Use this panel to select whether the virtual machine will use a virtual disk or an existing (raw) disk partition. Virtual disks are simpler to set up and use. Working with existing disk partitions is recommended for advanced users only. VMware recommends that new users gain experience with the product by initially installing a guest operating system on a virtual disk. However, be aware that it is not possible to convert an entire virtual disk to a raw disk or vice versa.

For advanced users: Select the Existing Disk Partition option if the host computer is a dual-boot or multi-boot system with another operating system installed on an IDE disk partition. The Existing Disk Partition option can also be used to configure a virtual machine where an operating system will be installed later onto an existing IDE disk partition. VMware can only work with existing disk partitions on IDE disk drives. SCSI, RAID and network drives are not supported.

Note: The VMware product, documentation and web site uses the terminology existing disk partition and raw disk interchangeably.