How to prepare a Virtual Server 2005 virtual hard disk file to send to Microsoft Product Support Services (888760)

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To submit a file to PSS, you can ship the file on physical media such as a CD or a DVD, or you can transfer the file to Microsoft over the Internet. We recommend that you do not try to transfer a virtual hard disk file that is more than 2 gigabytes (GB) over the Internet. Instead, store or "burn" this file on a DVD. For larger files, divide the image into files that are no larger than 4 GB, and burn those 4-GB files to as many DVD discs as you require.

Note It is not important which tool you use to divide the virtual hard disk images into 4-GB files. However, verify that the PSS support professional has access to the same tool.

To help reduce the size of a virtual hard disk file, follow these steps:

1. Start the virtual machine, and then remove all nonessential files from the virtual hard disk that you want to send to PSS.
2. In the virtual machine, run the Disk Defragmenter tool to defragment the virtual hard disk that you want to send to PSS. To do this, follow these steps:
   
   Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.
   1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
   2. Right-click the hard disk that you want to defragment, and then click Properties.
   3. Click the Tools tab, and then click Defragment Now.
   4. Click Defragment.
   You can also defragment the hard disk at the command prompt. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   2. Type defrag /? to view a list of the available options for the Disk Defragmenter tool.
3. In the virtual machine, run the Virtual Disk Precompactor tool to prepare the virtual hard disk for compacting. The Virtual Disk Precompactor tool is available in Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 Service Pack 1 (SP1). For additional information about how to obtain Virtual PC 2004 SP1, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

   http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/downloads/sp1.mspx

4. Run the Inspect command to compact the virtual hard disk file. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft Virtual Server, and then click Virtual Server Administration Website.
   2. Type your credentials in the User name box and in the Password box, and then click OK.
   3. Under Virtual Disks, click Inspect.
   4. In the Known virtual hard disks list, click the virtual hard disk that you want to compact.
      
      Note You can also type the path of the virtual hard disk in the Fully qualified path to file box.
   5. Click Inspect.
   6. Under VirtualHardDiskName.vhd Actions, click Compact virtual hard disk, and then click Compact.
5. Use a file compression program, such as WinZip, to archive the virtual hard disk file.

For additional information about how to contact PSS, visit the following Microsoft Web site:For additional information about Virtual Server 2005, visit the following Microsoft Web site: