During a custom configuration, if you instruct the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a new virtual disk, use an existing virtual disk, or use a physical disk, the wizard prompts you for the name and location of a virtual disk (.vmdk) file.

Table 1. Required Information for Each Disk Type

Type of Disk

Description

New virtual disk

If you specified that all disk space should be stored in a single file, Workstation Pro uses the filename that you provide to create one 40GB disk file. If you specified that disk space should be stored in multiple files, Workstation Pro generates subsequent filenames by using the filename that you provide. If you specified that files can increase in size, subsequent filenames include an s in the file number, for example, Windows 7-s001.vmdk. If you specified that all disk space should be allocated when the virtual disk is created, subsequent filenames include an f in the file number, for example, Windows 7-f001.vmdk.

Existing virtual disk

You select the name and location of an existing virtual disk file.

Physical disk

After the wizard prompts you to select a physical device and specify whether to use the entire disk or individual partitions, you must specify a virtual disk file. Workstation Pro uses this virtual disk file to store partition access configuration information for the physical disk.

Note:

Earlier VMware products use the .dsk extension for virtual disk files.