How do you delete a virtual machine in VMWare?

[lloyd709]

I've installed Windows 98 under VMWare fusion because I wanted to run a particular piece of software that only runs on it only to find that it doesn't but now I can't delete the Windows 98 virtual machine. The 'delete' option under the 'edit' menu is grayed out.

There doesn't seem to be any other way to delete it. I've spent ages on Google trying to find an answer but can't find one.

Any ideas?

[vandozza]

By default your Virtual Machines are stored in -
~/Documents/Virtual Machines

You can navigate to this directory and drag and drop the VM from the Virtual Machines folder to the trash.

To remove the entry from VMWare, select it from the VMWare launcher area, and press delete.

(If you stored your Virtual Machine in somewhere other than the default location, then you will find your Virtual Machines in that directory.)

Hope this helps!

[lloyd709]

Thanks - deleting the virtual machine from the directory seems to have done the trick in terms of getting rid of the item on my list of virtual machines, but I'm not sure it's given me back the disk space I originally allocated to it. I thought VMWare partitioned out sections of the disk when you create a new vertual machine?

Also, I don't understand why I found it so hard to find out how to remove a virtual machine. As I mentioned the 'delete' option was grayed out and for the life of me I couldn't find anything on the web on the subject - to me this would be a basic funtional requirement of any virtual machine software.

I generaly think VMWare is great but their customer support is really bad - I found it almost imposible, to the point I gave up, to put a request for support in on this matter.

[edesignuk]

Virtual machines do not partition your physical disk, they create disk images that they then use. Deleting the machine deletes the image, and so gives you your disk space back.

If you do "Show Package Contents" on one of your VM files, you'll see in there a .vmdk file. This is your hard disk image for that VM.

[vandozza]

Originally Posted by lloyd709

Thanks - deleting the virtual machine from the directory seems to have done the trick in terms of getting rid of the item on my list of virtual machines, but I'm not sure it's given me back the disk space I originally allocated to it. I thought VMWare partitioned out sections of the disk when you create a new vertual machine?

Also, I don't understand why I found it so hard to find out how to remove a virtual machine. As I mentioned the 'delete' option was grayed out and for the life of me I couldn't find anything on the web on the subject - to me this would be a basic funtional requirement of any virtual machine software.

I generaly think VMWare is great but their customer support is really bad - I found it almost imposible, to the point I gave up, to put a request for support in on this matter.

yes it is strange there isnt a delete button near the new/download/settings/run area.

im not surprised that delete in the edit menu was greyed out, that "delete" seems more reserved for text based actions, and is often greyed out in many applications (for me, right now in firefox as an example!)

as edesignuk pointed out, you should have recovered the space from your windows installation when you deleted the virtual machine.
i believe that you can also set parallels and VMWare to use a pre-existing boot-camp partition, but I have not tried that option. this may be where the confusion regarding partitions etc is coming from (as certainly that is one way to run VMWare.)

[lloyd709]

Thanks guys - your replies have really helped understand what's going on.

And it's nice that it's not just me that thinks it should be easier to remove a virtual machine.

[cogsinister]

Originally Posted by lloyd709

Thanks guys - your replies have really helped understand what's going on.

And it's nice that it's not just me that thinks it should be easier to remove a virtual machine.

I think they want it not to be TOO easy to delete your virtual machines.....just in case...

It took me while to work out where they were stored yesterday when deleting Vista...

[EODSoft]

Did you shut down the virtual machine first? Don't suspend it, you hve to actually shut down. When I do that I can delete the VM no problem.

[Pipper99]

If I read this correctly, the virtual machine is the Windows installation. If I delete the virtual machine, is the entire Windows installation deleted? Are there any leftover files scattered on my mac that need to be removed? Sorry if this question is dumb, I'm new to the Mac.

[lloyd709]

Originally Posted by Pipper99

If I read this correctly, the virtual machine is the Windows installation. If I delete the virtual machine, is the entire Windows installation deleted? Are there any leftover files scattered on my mac that need to be removed? Sorry if this question is dumb, I'm new to the Mac.

I'm fairly sure that is correct - there are no other files left on your mac. I believe the virtual machine is just one file.

[Pipper99]

Thank you, Lloyd!