How to add a physical disk to a VMWare Ubuntu Server (8.04) guest. Become root: sudo su On your HOST system add your user (the user VMWare is running as) to the disk group: adduser [Your_username] disk Make SURE the physical disk is NOT mounted on the HOST. You can list all disks with fdisk, it will give something like this: fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x1ed4c9dc Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 24136 193872388+ 83 Linux /dev/sda2 24137 24321 1486012+ 5 Extended /dev/sda5 24137 24321 1485981 82 Linux swap / Solaris Disk /dev/sdb: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0xf0aac52b Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 30515 245111706 7 HPFS/NTFS Depending of your disks and sizes of course. Make sure the disk you want to use in the GUEST is not in the HOSTs /etc/fstab: nano /etc/fstab # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 # /dev/sda1 UUID=b0288f4b-ca58-417d-b618-b74d377c6f64 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1 # /dev/sda5 UUID=7af51b89-4338-41a3-88b4-9909ff06c760 none swap sw 0 0 /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0 # This has been disabled to remove the HOST disk access # to the disk we want to use in the VMWare guest! #/dev/sdb1 /media/hd ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0 Save and exit. Now when we are absolutely sure that the HOST do not mount the disk at boot and that the disk is not already mounted you can edit your virtual machine. Add the disk using the VMWare console: Shut down your guest and edit the machine. Select to add a new disk using the option "Use a physical disk (for advanced users)". On device, enter the disk you see in your HOST when listing all disks with fdisk -l, in my case: /dev/sdb1 Select "Use entire disk". Next, next, and finish. Start your GUEST, login and become root. List available disks, it will give something like this: fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 21.4 GB, 21474836480 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x000566c7 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 2553 20506941 83 Linux /dev/sda2 2554 2610 457852+ 5 Extended /dev/sda5 2554 2610 457821 82 Linux swap / Solaris Disk /dev/sdb: 250.9 GB, 250994386944 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30514 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk identifier: 0x69205244 This doesn't look like a partition table Probably you selected the wrong device. --- Cut --- My system disk is 21.4 GB including the swap and so on... The disk /dev/sdb (250.9 GB) is the one from the host. Now add in the fstab file: nano /etc/fstab # /etc/fstab: static file system information. # # proc /proc proc defaults 0 0 # /dev/sda1 UUID=6b094872-d70d-4cbf-acf1-c5774397f835 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1 # /dev/sda5 UUID=6c2a13dd-5efa-4120-8f37-c5112a4271e7 none swap sw 0 0 /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0 /dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0 # This is the device from the HOST, mounted as an NTFS volume in /media/hd. /dev/sdb /media/hd ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0 Save and exit. Create the hd directory in /media: mkdir /media/hd Set the rights how ever you want it (in this case everyone everything): chmod 777 -R /media/hd Mount the disk: mount -a You are done! :)