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Incompatibility between McAfee for Mac and VMware Fusion can damage virtual hard disks

Details

There is an incompatibility between certain McAfee Mac antivirus products and VMware Fusion that can cause truncated virtual hard disk files (.vmdk) when you power off your Mac. When you restart the Mac and resume a virtual machine, you see a message that the .vmdk file is corrupted.
 
This can happen with McAfee VirusScan for Mac 8.6.1, McAfee VirusScan for Mac 9.0, and McAfee Security for Mac 1.0.
 
This problem does not arise if you exclude your virtual machines from McAfee virus scans.
 
Note: The incompatibility relates only to McAfee antivirus products running on the host Mac. Installing McAfee VirusScan Plus in your Windows virtual machines does not affect their virtual hard disks. VMware recommends running antivirus software in your virtual machines.

Solution

If you have installed one of the McAfee antivirus products for Mac, exclude your virtual machines from any scan to avoid potential corruption of your virtual hard disks.
 
For detailed instructions, select your McAfee antivirus product:
To prevent the virus scanner from scanning your virtual machine directory:
  1. On your Mac, open your Applications folder and launch VirusScan.
  2. Click Preferences in the VirusScan for Mac window.
  3. Click More Options.
  4. Select Click lock to make changes.
  5. Select Exclude specific disks, files and folders, and click Add within the Excluded File or Folder section.
  6. Select the Virtual Machines folder within your Documents folder or the location that you store your virtual machines.

    Note: This also excludes any sub-folders and their contents.
  7. Lock your changes and close the window. The virtual machines are now excluded from being scanned.
To prevent the virus scanner from scanning your virtual machine directory:
  1. On your Mac, open your Applications folder and launch McAfee Security.
  2. Go to McAfee Security > Preferences.
  3. Select the Anti-malware tab.
  4. Click the lock to allow changes, and enter an administrator's username and password when prompted.
  5. Click the + button to add items to the list.
  6. Select the Virtual Machines folder within your Documents folder, or the location that you store your virtual machines, and click Open.

    Note: This also excludes any sub-folders and their contents.
  7. Close the window. The virtual machines are now excluded from being scanned

Note: When you start your virtual machine, Fusion continues to warn you about the incompatibility. Select Do not show this message again check box at the bottom of the warning in order to not show the warning again. In Fusion 3.1, this warning is triggered only if the file /usr/local/McAfee/ProductConfig.xml is present on your computer.

Update History

06/18/2010 - Added note to disable warning. 03/17/2011 - Added instructions for McAfee Security.

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