New VMs on Separate SDD

[Fergus160]

Hi,

I am about to install VB and then install a few VMS on a separate spare SDD to keep them all together. Do I need to install VB on the same drive as the VMs or should I just install VB on my C:\ drive and then the VMs on the spare SDD.

[Rootman]

Your VMs can reside pretty much anywhere you want. I have done what you are asking about many times. I mainly do this to keep the VMs off the OS drive so I can back it up (and potentially restore) the OS on my host quickly.

On my home laptop I have VB on the C: drive SSD and my VMs on a second SSD. On my work Desktop I have VB on the OS partition of an SSD and my VMs on a second partition of the same SSD. Same with my work laptop.

[scottgus1]

As Rootman says, let Virtualbox install on the C drive. Use the main Virtualbox window's File menu, Preferences, General, Default Machine Folder to set the starting folder for your new guests on the SSD.

For maximum ease of use & backup later on, Virtualbox defaults to wanting to put the guest's .vbox 'recipe' file and the guest drive file in the same folder. Stick with this plan, so all your guest folders & files go on the SSD.

[mpack]

Do remember that there are inherent dangers when using any kind of external drive. The main danger is unplugging the drive while the VM is running - you must remember not to do that, and it would be wise not to use file formats that are prone to corruption. That means don't use VHD format, and don't use snapshots or other differencing media formats.

The external drive should also be formatted with a filesystem that supports large files (>4GB), i.e. NTFS or exFAT. The former will require you to eject the drive before removal, I expect the latter won't, though at the cost of lower performance.

[Fergus160]

Brilliant, Many thanks.