ASP Developer Network - Brought to you by Steve Radich and BitShop, Inc. - http://www.bitshop.com

ASPDeveloper

ASPDeveloper.Net / VirtualServerFAQ.COM

Make sure you go to our home page for:

* Virtual Server 2005 FAQ
* ASP.Net 2.0 Information
* ASP.Net 2.0 Streaming Tutorials
* ASP.Net 2.0 HTML based Tutorials

Made possible by Business Internet Technology Shop (BitShop)

Virtual PC (Mac)

Recent Virtual PC (Mac) posts

* office for pc on virtual pc?
* Can"t install Office2K
* When and what updates are expected for Virtual PC?
* Unable to install windows on VPC7
* Help with installing PC programs
* Installer Freezes when Trying to Load Windows XP Home on to Virtual PC
* VPC 7 and WIN 95
* Does VPC 7.01 USES my BOTH of the G5"s in my system?
* Can I now post to <microsoft.public.mac.virtualpc>
* some questions about VPC future...
* Restart VPC7 WinXPpro after crash
* Can"t access Microsoft Web site
* Big problem with Tiger and OS X 1.3.9
* A couple questions on VPC 7
* Print server function in VPC
* Virtual PC v. 7.0
* Virtual PC and USB compatibility
* Sort contacts by first name
* MAC OS 10.4 Harware problems
* USB Blackberry Connectivity

Add Solution

Ok, I"ll try again

Source: microsoft.public.mac.virtualpc
Sent: 05/19/2005
From: John <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

People,
I posted this message a few days ago but received only one response that
wasn't very helpful and didn't address the second question at all, so
I'm posting again.

A few months ago I installed VPC 7.0.1 and migrated Windows XP Home from
my previous install of VPC 5. I has been working fine until I received a
message saying something to the effect that I was running out of hard
disk space (I assume due to the ever expanding "feature" of Windows).
Under VPC 5 I simply saved my data and then trashed the expanded virtual
disk and replaced it with a virgin copy that I had saved when I first
installed VPC and Windows. A bit brute force perhaps but the process
worked fine. This time when I tried it with VPC 7 everything seemed to
go fine until Windows started up. I now get a message saying, "A problem
has prevented Windows from accurately checking the status of the license
for the computer. To proceed your copy of Windows must be activated with
Microsoft. Do you want to activate Windows now?" That would be fine
except the Windows mouse is frozen on the Windows desktop so I can't do
anything. The Mac mouse is alive and well and I can click it on the
Windows screen and see activity on the Windows CPU usage meter but
nothing happens.

Ok, here are my questions.
1. How do I "thaw out" the Windows mouse? I tried updating additions but
nothing happened.

2. If, instead of totally replacing my virtual hard drive, I wanted to
reclaim free disk space, what third party software is recommended for
zeroing out data in the virtual hard disk?

Thanks in advance
John

Post Reply | This is Spam! | Mark as Spam

Related Messages

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/19/2005
From: "Unseelie" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

That may be because the emulated BIOS changed between VPC 5.0 and VPC
7.0. It's possible to reach a point on first boot where Windows
finishes booting before all of the hardware is re-recognized by the
emulated PC. If the mouse or keyboard driver has not yet loaded, you'd
see the behavior that you're seeing.

Go to the PC menu and select reset, and wait for Windows to restart. It
*should* work at that point.

If not, you should boot Windows in "Safe Mode" by pressing and holding
F8 right when the VM begins to boot (before the Windows splash screen).
When Windows finishing booting to the desktop, remove the VM additions
via add/remove software or the additions installer and then restart
Windows.

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/20/2005
From: John <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

In article <(email address - cut out)>,
"Unseelie" <(email address - cut out)> wrote:

Unseelie,
Thanks for the information. It was very helpful. Using "reset" did the
trick although I did have to wait several minutes before the frozen
Window's mouse "thawed out" by itself.

However do you have an answer to my second question, namely, what third
party software is recommended for zeroing out data in the virtual hard
disk?

John

Show quoted text

> That may be because the emulated BIOS changed between VPC 5.0 and VPC
> 7.0. It's possible to reach a point on first boot where Windows
> finishes booting before all of the hardware is re-recognized by the
> emulated PC. If the mouse or keyboard driver has not yet loaded, you'd
> see the behavior that you're seeing.
>
> Go to the PC menu and select reset, and wait for Windows to restart. It
> *should* work at that point.
>
> If not, you should boot Windows in "Safe Mode" by pressing and holding
> F8 right when the VM begins to boot (before the Windows splash screen).
> When Windows finishing booting to the desktop, remove the VM additions
> via add/remove software or the additions installer and then restart
> Windows.

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/20/2005
From: "Unseelie" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

A program called Eraser seems to be what people use... though it seems
to be tricky, if your goal is reclaiming free space within a VPC drive
image. Do a google search on Eraser in this group and you should find
more info.

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/20/2005
From: Steve Jain <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

On Wed, 18 May 2005 08:51:47 -0700, John <(email address - cut out)> wrote:

Eraser will work, but its a time consuming process. An alternate
option is to use disk imaging software like Ghost (but some newer
versions won't work) and simply duplicate the old image to new and
this will automatically compact in the process.

There is a thread from a few months ago regarding this and the user
gave a lot of info on her process and the software she used.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
Website: http://www.essjae.com
"This posting is provided "AS IS" with
no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use.
I am not am employee of Microsoft."

Show quoted text

>
>Unseelie,
>Thanks for the information. It was very helpful. Using "reset" did the
>trick although I did have to wait several minutes before the frozen
>Window's mouse "thawed out" by itself.
>
>However do you have an answer to my second question, namely, what third
>party software is recommended for zeroing out data in the virtual hard
>disk?
>

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/20/2005
From: John <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

In article <(email address - cut out)>,
Steve Jain <(email address - cut out)> wrote:

Steve,
It sounds like Eraser is a bit iffy. How about Norton Utilities, won't
the defrag utility in Norton basically compact everything?

I also checked out the post on March 23 by tonza. It sounds like a
winner but I don't have Cygwin or Microsoft Services for UNIX or any
other means for running C code.

John

Show quoted text

> On Wed, 18 May 2005 08:51:47 -0700, John <(email address - cut out)> wrote:
>
> >
> >Unseelie,
> >Thanks for the information. It was very helpful. Using "reset" did the
> >trick although I did have to wait several minutes before the frozen
> >Window's mouse "thawed out" by itself.
> >
> >However do you have an answer to my second question, namely, what third
> >party software is recommended for zeroing out data in the virtual hard
> >disk?
> >
> Eraser will work, but its a time consuming process. An alternate
> option is to use disk imaging software like Ghost (but some newer
> versions won't work) and simply duplicate the old image to new and
> this will automatically compact in the process.
>
> There is a thread from a few months ago regarding this and the user
> gave a lot of info on her process and the software she used.

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/21/2005
From: "Unseelie" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Good luck getting Norton Systemworks to install... the last version I
could find that would work with VPC was Systemworks 2003. Since then
Norton has updated their piracy protection and it no longer installs or
runs in VPC.

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/21/2005
From: "Tony Kavadias" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Eraser is overkill in simply erasing (zeroing) blocks... because Eraser also
overwrites the same disk blocks multiple times in an attempt to securely
"scrub" information off your hard disk.

If you have Cygwin or SFU installed, it's much faster to do this after
defragmenting the drive:

% (cat /dev/zero > .zero)& ; rm .zero

If you don't have these environments installed, I have a stand-alone binary
handy that can do this for you, or if you have Visual Studio, I can send you
the sources!

-- tonza

"Unseelie" <(email address - cut out)> wrote in message
news:(email address - cut out)...

Show quoted text

>A program called Eraser seems to be what people use... though it seems
> to be tricky, if your goal is reclaiming free space within a VPC drive
> image. Do a google search on Eraser in this group and you should find
> more info.
>

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/21/2005
From: Steve Jain <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

On Wed, 18 May 2005 19:48:12 -0700, John <(email address - cut out)> wrote:

Defragging is only one the first step. The empty space must then be
zeroed before you run the compactor, otherwise you won't regain any
space.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
Website: http://www.essjae.com
"This posting is provided "AS IS" with
no warranties, and confers no rights.
You assume all risk for your use.
I am not am employee of Microsoft."

Show quoted text

>In article <(email address - cut out)>,
>Steve,
>It sounds like Eraser is a bit iffy. How about Norton Utilities, won't
>the defrag utility in Norton basically compact everything?

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/21/2005
From: Richard Cardona <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

Also all de-fraggers (is that a word?) are not equal. I use Diskeeper 8
and it does not defragment the free space by default only the allocated
files are defragmented. So even I run eraser, I will not be eligible to
compact my disk to the bare minimum.

Steve Jain wrote:

Show quoted text

> On Wed, 18 May 2005 19:48:12 -0700, John <(email address - cut out)> wrote:
>
>
>>In article <(email address - cut out)>,
>
>
>>Steve,
>>It sounds like Eraser is a bit iffy. How about Norton Utilities, won't
>>the defrag utility in Norton basically compact everything?
>
>
> Defragging is only one the first step. The empty space must then be
> zeroed before you run the compactor, otherwise you won't regain any
> space.

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/22/2005
From: John <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

In article <428c0091$0$10307$(email address - cut out)>,
"Tony Kavadias" <(email address - cut out)> wrote:

Tony,
Thanks for the offers. Am I correct in assuming that the stand alone
binary is an executable that I can simply run under Windows without
needing another app? If so, I may be interested, is there a charge?

I do have Visual Studio but I never installed it and therefore have no
experience in using it.

You can write me direct at:
mjensenatattheriverdotdotcom
(replace dual "ats" and "dots")

John

Show quoted text

> Eraser is overkill in simply erasing (zeroing) blocks... because Eraser also
> overwrites the same disk blocks multiple times in an attempt to securely
> "scrub" information off your hard disk.
>
> If you have Cygwin or SFU installed, it's much faster to do this after
> defragmenting the drive:
>
> % (cat /dev/zero > .zero)& ; rm .zero
>
> If you don't have these environments installed, I have a stand-alone binary
> handy that can do this for you, or if you have Visual Studio, I can send you
> the sources!
>
> -- tonza

Re: Ok, I"ll try again

Sent: 05/28/2005
From: "Unseelie" <(email address - cut out)>
Message:

And, if you run with undo drives, those need to be disabled first or
all you will do is reclaim free space in the undo drive.

To be sure, I commit or discard my undo state and disable that first.
Then I defrag & zero free space. After that, shut Windows down (don't
save state)... after all of that, you should be able to compact the
image.

Post Reply | This is Spam! | Mark as Spam

Other groups

Virtual PC (Mac)(3592)	Virtual PC(12844)	Virtual PC (French)(496)
Virtual Server 2005(6245)

Our Sponsors

Virtual Server 2005 Info Here!
http://www.aspdeveloper.net

Wiki

Blogs

Articles

Image galleries

File galleries

Forums

Maps

Directories

ASP Developer Network (since 1996) - Brought to you by Steve Radich and BitShop, Inc. - http://www.bitshop.com
Copyright © 1997-2005 by BitShop, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
No content may be reproduced in any form without written permission from BitShop, Inc.
We will be honored to assist with reproduction rights on our material if you contact us.
We also can provide print articles for your magazine, private training seminars at your site, and conference presentations.
Thank you for visiting. Please bookmark our site if you found it useful!
If you wish to make a donation it will help further the development of these free resources: