Can I install a virtual system on an external USB 2.0 HDD?

P

Pure_BY2012-06-24 18:41:46

Virtualization

Pure_BY, 2012-06-24 18:41:46

I have a Windows 7 x64 laptop with 6GB RAM and 110GB SSD. Naturally, in such a configuration, each gigabyte of the disk counts, and I feel sorry for installing a virtual system on the “golden” gigabytes of SSD - I don’t often need such a toy.

There is an external HDD 1.5 TB (USB 2.0). There was an idea to install a virtual system (Windows XP or 7) on it. Question: will the virtual machine noticeably slow down as a result of this, or only at startup?

Second question: which virtual machine is faster and more reliable: Microsoft VirtualPC or VMware?

Thank you.

Reply

Answer the question

In order to leave comments, you need to log in

5 answer(s)

L

luxferre, 2012-06-24
@luxferre

I use win7 x86 (parallels desktop) on an external usb2 screw (also a small ssd) for webmoney. if you allocate 2 GB of memory to the virtual machine, then it almost does not slow down with one or two running applications (not demanding on resources). I think at 4 GB it will be noticeably better, but I would only have 4
USB3 or an ExpressCard slot (for a USB3 or eSATA adapter), I would use a carrier with a faster interface

I

Ivan Komarov, 2012-06-24
@FreeTibet

Hint: maybe there is an E-SATA connector in the laptop?

K

kreativf, 2012-06-24
@kreativf

It will slow down a lot. More reliable IMHO VMWare, but this is a topic for a separate holivar.

E

EGarbuzov, 2012-06-25
@EGarbuzov

There was a case, one friend had several non-critical, but combat machines spinning in the infrastructure on a datastore connected to ESXi via iSCSI from a regular laptop with a 2 terabyte external screw. Of course, the temporary house and, of course, not from a good life, but they worked without any prohibitive brakes.
By the second request, it seems to me that VirtualPC is no longer the best option. Even in win8, they seem to be announcing some kind of variation on the Hyper-V theme.

M

Maxim, 2012-06-25
@Bublik

Tried Win7 on USB 2.0 HDD, USB 2.0 Flash, USB 3.0 Flash and fast SD card.
In all cases, the speed was enough, except for USB 2.0 Flash - here everything rested on the speed of the flash drive itself.
The fastest option is a USB 3.0 flash drive, there are no brakes at all here. All this works on a laptop with 8GB of RAM and I give 4GB to a virtual machine. Virtualization system - VirtualBox