WoodyZ,
Thanks so much for your prompt response. It has already helped:
1. The problem with Acronis Recovery Media not finding the virtual disk does indeed seem to have been lack of formatting. Since I subsequently installed Windows on the virtual disk, I knew it was formatted, so I powered up, entered the virtual BIOS (how cool is that?), changed the boot sequence to optical drive, loaded Recovery Media, ran True Image, and browsed for TIB files. Please see VMware004small.jpg. The virtual disk (C:) with its bare-bones Windows 7 installation is there! After selecting the TIB file I want to restore, I browsed for new partitions. Please see VMware005small.jpg. Along with the TIB drive, I now have the choice to over-write Windows on the C: drive. I then went as far as I could go without damaging my new virtual Windows installation and specified TIB recovery options. Please see VMware006small.jpg. It's all set to use the 200 GB C: partition (minus 1 MB, which True Image always likes to reserve for some reason). At that point, I canceled the procedure and powered down the VM.
So... my next project will be to create another 200 GB VM, power up with the same Acronis Recovery Media (which also contains their Disk Director utility for formatting and otherwise managing partitions), run Disk Director, format the bare virtual disk, rerun True Image, etc. I suspect that it will work correctly this time!
In passing, I observe that VM > Settings has Hard Disk Utilities... but only Defragment, Expand, and Compact. It might be nice to have Format as well just for situations like this.
Anyway, if and when I finally have a virtual equivalent of my current physical software environment running, I'll be in a much better position to evaluate what works, what doesn't, and whether virtualization will be fast enough for my daily workflow... or just adequate for evaluating alternative software applications. Even if only the latter, I think it will be a win for me.
2. OK, so I cannot install my AMD Catalyst/Radeon display adapter driver inside the VM. Are there techniques to replace the VMware display adapter inside the VM... or tweak its performance so that it's not the bottleneck in Windows Experience Index? The larger question is what kinds of performance tuning methods are available for Windows VMs? And, with respect to disk performance, would you expect WEI virtual disk scores to approach physical scores if I placed all VM disk files on SSD? And has anyone benchmarked performance differences between a single preallocated file, a dynamically growing file, and a series of 2 GB files?
3. If I can virtualize my current physical environment, I'll see how outbound VPNs, monitor switching, and my other concerns play out. I agree with you that simply virtualizing what I currently have now is suboptimal... but it will teach me a lot about where virtualization could fit in my life. Again, any favorite reference books about workstation virtualization practices on your list?
Thanks again for your insights. Much appreciated!
Regards,
M. Miller