>I had planned to use the Virtual PC to build Windows CE images on a Shared
>drive. However I’m finding the performance is unacceptably slow.
>
>Hardware: Core Duo @ 2.6GHz 32bit, 6 GB of 667 MHz RAM, I’ve enabled the
>BIOS virtualization
>Host software: OS is XP with SP3, Virtual PC 2007 SP1
>Virtual PC Image: VHD file exists on the same drive as the Host OS (I don’t
>have the choice, I only have one drive), Running XP SP2 image with Virtual
>Machine Additions installed, and allocated 2GB RAM.
>
>Building CE image on the Host OS takes about 10-15 minutes. On the Virtual
>PC it’s looking like the task will take over 24 hours. Not to mention most
>tasks on the Host OS are noticeably slowed.
>Should I expect this type of performance?
>
>In an effort to increase performance I’m in the process of moving all the
>code from the shared drive to the VHD (this is taking some time).
>What else could I do to speed up the virtual machine?
>
>How much of an improvement would be gained by switching the VHDs to another
>physical hard drive?

> On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 15:04:02 -0700, Chris M <Chris
> (email address - cut out)> wrote:
>
> >I had planned to use the Virtual PC to build Windows CE images on a Shared
> >drive. However I’m finding the performance is unacceptably slow.
> >
> >Hardware: Core Duo @ 2.6GHz 32bit, 6 GB of 667 MHz RAM, I’ve enabled the
> >BIOS virtualization
>
> If this is poorly implemented in the host BIOS it can cause all kinds
> of problems. I'd try disabling hardware virtualization for this guest.
>
>
> >Host software: OS is XP with SP3, Virtual PC 2007 SP1
> >Virtual PC Image: VHD file exists on the same drive as the Host OS (I don’t
> >have the choice, I only have one drive), Running XP SP2 image with Virtual
> >Machine Additions installed, and allocated 2GB RAM.
>
> I have seen mention of additions from VPC2007SP1 installed on XP SP2
> and earlier guests causing performance problems. You might want to get
> the additions from VPC2007 (without SP1) and install these instead.
>
> >
> >Building CE image on the Host OS takes about 10-15 minutes. On the Virtual
> >PC it’s looking like the task will take over 24 hours. Not to mention most
> >tasks on the Host OS are noticeably slowed.
>
> You say "building CE image". What does this mean? Which tool do you
> use and what else is involved?
>
> >Should I expect this type of performance?
>
> Definitely not!
>
> >
> >In an effort to increase performance I’m in the process of moving all the
> >code from the shared drive to the VHD (this is taking some time).
>
> So where is the source for the build located? If the guest is
> accessing the code via some kind of networking then you may have the
> slowdown right there. To compare apples with apples you should have
> the sources local on the guest if that is what you do on the host.
>
> >What else could I do to speed up the virtual machine?
> >
> >How much of an improvement would be gained by switching the VHDs to another
> >physical hard drive?
>
> If your problems are disk access dependent you will gain a *lot* by
> getting a different physical drive (a new spindle) so that the disk
> head need not jump back and forth between the VHD image file and the
> host files while working.
> But you need a *physical* new drive, a new partition on the existing
> drive will make things worse. A USB connected drive would improve
> things.
>
> --
>
> Bo Berglund (Sweden)
>

>slow for intensive disk operations.
>My responses embedded below…
>
>> On Tue, 3 Jun 2008 15:04:02 -0700, Chris M <Chris
>> (email address - cut out)> wrote:
>>
>> >I had planned to use the Virtual PC to build Windows CE images on a Shared
>> >drive. However I’m finding the performance is unacceptably slow.
>> >
>> >Hardware: Core Duo @ 2.6GHz 32bit, 6 GB of 667 MHz RAM, I’ve enabled the
>> >BIOS virtualization
>>
>> If this is poorly implemented in the host BIOS it can cause all kinds
>> of problems. I'd try disabling hardware virtualization for this guest.
>>
>I turned off the virtualization feature in the BIOS and it made no noticable
>differance.
>>
>> >Host software: OS is XP with SP3, Virtual PC 2007 SP1
>> >Virtual PC Image: VHD file exists on the same drive as the Host OS (I don’t
>> >have the choice, I only have one drive), Running XP SP2 image with Virtual
>> >Machine Additions installed, and allocated 2GB RAM.
>>
>> I have seen mention of additions from VPC2007SP1 installed on XP SP2
>> and earlier guests causing performance problems. You might want to get
>> the additions from VPC2007 (without SP1) and install these instead.
>>
>I started this whole mess with the host OS running XP SP2 and VPC2007. I
>was seeeing the same problem so I upgradded to XP SP3 and VPC2007 SP1 to see
>if there was any improvment.
>> >
>> >Building CE image on the Host OS takes about 10-15 minutes. On the Virtual
>> >PC it’s looking like the task will take over 24 hours. Not to mention most
>> >tasks on the Host OS are noticeably slowed.
>>
>> You say "building CE image". What does this mean? Which tool do you
>> use and what else is involved?
>>
>This involves using a tool similar to Visual Studio (Platform Builder) to
>compile a large volume of code (mostly C and C++). The operation is fairly
>disk and CPU intensive.
>> >Should I expect this type of performance?
>>
>> Definitely not!
>>
>> >
>> >In an effort to increase performance I’m in the process of moving all the
>> >code from the shared drive to the VHD (this is taking some time).
>>
>> So where is the source for the build located? If the guest is
>> accessing the code via some kind of networking then you may have the
>> slowdown right there. To compare apples with apples you should have
>> the sources local on the guest if that is what you do on the host.
>>
>The source was in a “Shared Folder” between the host OS and guest OS
>(exposed via installing Virtual Machine Additions). During the build there
>is no simultaneous access of this folder between the host and guest OSs.
>
>> >What else could I do to speed up the virtual machine?
>> >
>> >How much of an improvement would be gained by switching the VHDs to another
>> >physical hard drive?
>>
>> If your problems are disk access dependent you will gain a *lot* by
>> getting a different physical drive (a new spindle) so that the disk
>> head need not jump back and forth between the VHD image file and the
>> host files while working.
>> But you need a *physical* new drive, a new partition on the existing
>> drive will make things worse. A USB connected drive would improve
>> things.
>>
>> --
>>
>> Bo Berglund (Sweden)
>>
>
>In an effort to solve the problem, I reinstalled all software on the guest
>OS and moved all sources to be built from the "Shared Folder" to the VHD of
>the guest OS. The build runs much quicker now (about half the speed of the
>same action running on the Host OS). It seems the "Shared Folder" is very
>slow for intensive disk operations.
>
>Note, this was all done on a single physical hard drive.