Horrid Disk Read Times in WVPC 2007

We have a WVPC XP VM setup in Windows 7 x64 which is displaying just
horrible read times when accessing one of the local drives of the host.
And I mean *horrible* times!

For example, I can copy a 12MB file from the guest to the host in the
blink of an eye, but copying the same file from the host to the guest
takes several minutes. Even doing a simple DIR at the command prompt
(in a folder with a couple dozen files) shows the sort of noticable
delay you might get doing it in a folder with several thousand files.

This bottleneck is limited to *just* the local drives. There is no
noticable perf problems reading remote/network drives. Mapping the
local drive to a named drive letter does not help. The VM is in
bridged network mode.

Ideas?

 

I have the same problem on my XP machine. Testing sites on my local
hard drive is very painful, because it is so terribly slow.

 

The interface between the host and guest is just slow and I suspect
it's a bug.

 

I can't say I've seen this on any other VMs, though? I just tried
another, on a different host, and I could sling a 22MB file in moments
from host to guest.

 

I can't say I've seen this on any other VMs, though? I just tried

With WVPC? Was VBOX perchance installed also on that box?

It's slow on all my machines, but I don't think every machine behaves
this way. I don't know the cause.

 

It seems highly VM specific, here, so there's gotta be a configuration
issue in play.

 

It seems highly VM specific, here, so there's gotta be a configuration

Networking set to NAT vs the physical NIC? I almost always use the
physical NIC.

 

That might be it, yep! I just tried on another with NIC, and it was
also painfully slow reading a host share.

 

I'll do some testing to when I get a chance, never thought there might
be a difference there...

 

After some more testing here, this (NAT vs NIC) doesn't seem to be the
issue. <sigh>

 

Bummer. I've heard of good results with 2 NIC's, one dedicated to VM's.
(not sure about this one either.)

Have you tried a normal RDP session? I think that would be another thing to
try and I'll do that.

What I've been doing is copying the file to an external PC or server and
then to the host/guest. (I really don't need to copy things between them
all that much, so it's workable)

 

Don't want to go there just so someone can run a 16-bit app written 30

RDP from host to guest, or vice-versa? Never even considered it.
What's the file transfer mechanism? (I ususally use mstsc, which means
ftp of course. Maybe you're thinking something like UltraVNC with a
built-in mechanism?)

LOL! That just might be the simplest answer! Sling it over to a
server. Oh my, IT will love this new and practical form of abuse. <eg>

 

RDP from host to guest, or vice-versa?

Host to guest.

Just another path, the built in display is based on mstsc, but it's not
identical, so if the bug is in the custom version, then normal mstsc might
work. I'm not really betting on it though. normal mstsc has drive sharing
abilities too...

 

Riiiiight! I dunno why, but I always forget mstsc can share drives
too! I tend to uncheck that, and just share the clipboard. Worth a
try, yeah.

 

How do you share a drive in an RDP session?
I never ever saw that....

 

Local resources tab -> local devices and resources -> More button, then it's
self explanatory. I don't know what version that came in on, so it might
not be there if you have something old, but I've been using it a long time.

 

Riiiiight! I dunno why, but I always forget mstsc can share drives too!

It didn't help, so don't bother. (it's actually slower)

 

There is no tab, just a single window titled <computer name> - Remote
Desktop and containing the desktop of the remote computer....
Everything I do there pertains to the remote PC.
?????

 

Not there, when you set up a connection, it's on that dialog. You have to
set it up before the connection is made.

 

Crap. :-(