VMware Communities: Message List - Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

WoodyZ — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:27:02 GMT

powerzhu wrote: what about this guide http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/resize-vmware-virtual-disk-tutorial.htm

What about it? What are you asking or trying to say? I see, ambiguity is your strong point.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

powerzhu — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:54:54 GMT

what about this guide http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/resize-vmware-virtual-disk-tutorial.htm

http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/resize-vmware-virtual-disk-tutorial.htm

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

mrdelurk — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 01:01:44 GMT

If anyone cares, this procedure worked fine on a Hackintosh (non-Apple-manufactured Intel box running OSX as main OS).

The only hangup was that Gparted didn't respond to mouse clicks in any predictable manner. If I clicked its icons, buttons, menu titles right in the middle, nothing would happen. But then far out from its window, where nothing but barren desktop remains, the pointer would suddenly turn into a finger. Gparted was mis-tracking my otherwise well-working mouse by, random directions and distances (one being 5 physical screen inches to the left and up).

So I basically went and clicked everything like a total noob - one the empty OSX background desktop, the VMWare title bar, you name it- and once something finally responded in Gparted's window (the only way to get a response!) I used the arrow keys, the number keys, and Enter to navigate to and to specify / launch what I needed to.

It was a bit scary way to resize a 40 Gig WinXP virtual machine system drive to 266 Gigs, but it got done with no damage caused.

Now if VMWare only begins supporting MIDI as well, I'll be all set.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

TerBearWY — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:47:10 GMT

That was it! Whoo hoo! Somehow I missed shutting down vs. suspending.... ******** happy dancing********* Thank you!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

WoodyZ — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:03:38 GMT

TerBearWY wrote: My problem-- I'm sort of afraid to do the resizing of the actual virtual disk-- I'd rather just add a 2nd one. However, when I close the VMWare Fusion virtual machine, running Windows XP Professional sp3, and then click on Settings, I'm unable to select a disk to add. All I can add are shared files. No matter what I click, I have that same problem.

You must shutdown, not suspend, from within the Guest OS. You cannot add an internal hard drive to a running or suspended Virtual Machine.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

TerBearWY — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:59:31 GMT

I've been reading all of the helpful files on resizing the virtual disk-- thanks everyone, for your carefully written directions!

My problem-- I'm sort of afraid to do the resizing of the actual virtual disk-- I'd rather just add a 2nd one. However, when I close the VMWare Fusion virtual machine, running Windows XP Professional sp3, and then click on Settings, I'm unable to select a disk to add. All I can add are shared files. No matter what I click, I have that same problem. I'm using a MacBook Pro, and running VMWare Fusion Version 1.1.3 (94249). I'm guessing that I'm not doing something correctly, but can anyone shed some light? Thank you!

Terri B.

Cheyenne, WY

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

randklevd2 — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:32:30 GMT

I have read many accounts on the web of terribly, terribly complicated, painful, prone-to-failure ways to do this.

My setup is an Intel Mac running a current version of VMware Fusion and I want to resize a WinXP/Vista VM image.

This is my version, it takes two steps:

1) From vmware fusion change the disk size in the disk size editor thing (the slider in Settings/Hard Disks) .

2) Boot WinXP; run Partition Magic 8.x; expand the partition to take over the new free space (my disks are NTFS); apply changes.

Voila, a bigger VM disk image. OK?

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

iChantz — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:41:49 GMT

Okay, I need help!
So I did the whole Gparted part and resized my hard drive, and applied and exited, but now when I try to run or change the settings my windows xp I can't!
I can click on the buttons, but nothing happens.
HELP!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

TinyBruk — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:27:09 GMT

The PDF from Pat is superb.. helped me no end.

Thanks

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

achmac — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:36:51 GMT

Hello Pat Lee,

your step by step doing document is great.

Thanks very much

Achim

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

gbullman — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:23:33 GMT

Thank you very much for this! I first converted my pre-allocated drive to one that will allocate space as needed, and then followed the instructions to grow it to the desired size. The latest version of Gparted Live (0.3.6-7) has slightly different startup prompts, but selecting defaults worked fine for me.

The conversion of the previous pre-allocated drive was the longest part of the process.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

topping — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 03:20:06 GMT

Extremely helpful, thank you for taking the time to create this.

I did find one problem with vdiskmanager, a persistent bus error. I went in and created a tarball of the disk in preparation for more work on the disk and set up CrashReporter in developer mode so I could attach a core dump here. But the very next time I ran it, things worked. So there is a bus error in there, I just barely had a report for you.

Kind regards

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

WoodyZ — Mon, 19 May 2008 15:22:48 GMT

mikeypas wrote: how do you clone to a new drive? do you need specific software?

You can use a product like Symantec Norton Ghost or the product mentioned in the link of the post you replied to or you can even use dd and GParted to resize the partition after using dd if applicable/needed. (dd and Gparted are free.)

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

mikeypas — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:56:41 GMT

how do you clone to a new drive?

do you need specific software?

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Lowfish — Sun, 18 May 2008 15:57:00 GMT

polarpop wrote:
I had some errors, so I did this:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/140676?tstart=0

Thanks a lot, this is so much easier. I had already spent way too much time trying the 'traditional' method. It does not get much easier than this:

(1) Add a new (bigger/smaller) drive

(2) Clone to new drive

(3) Delete old drive

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

myoglobin82 — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:19:06 GMT

Thank you!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

fathub — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:22:32 GMT

Woody,

Can you email/pm me....? I need to get a hold of you...I owe you.....

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

WoodyZ — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:15:47 GMT

myoglobin82 wrote: Would someone please post updated links for the third party sortware required?

The directions for all of this are in the Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests.pdf attached to the first post in this thread.

In the .pdf under "Download the Software", "1) Download the latest viskdiskmanager GUI" for some reason that link errors out however here is a link for the actual utility. http://communities.vmware.com/servlet/JiveServlet/download/674493-2124/vdiskmanager%20GUI%200.2007.06.18.zip

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

myoglobin82 — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:59:22 GMT

I NEED HELP!
I want to increase my vitrual disk size!!! I'm using Fusion on my MacBook Pro, and using Windows Vista. Let me preface this by saying I'm pretty computer illiterate. Would someone please post updated links for the third party sortware required? Or tell me if there's an easier way to increase my virtual disk size?

ANY HELP WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED!
Thank you!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

markw10 — Mon, 05 May 2008 21:58:17 GMT

I just found it. I was looking in the finder, not terminal. It worked fine and solved my problem.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

etung — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:52:04 GMT

I'm interested in doing this but can't find vdiskmanager. Where is it? It is part of the VMWare install or do I have to add it?

The command-line program vmware-vdiskmanager comes with Fusion. My GUI wrapper does not; get it from earlier in this thread.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:51:08 GMT

The path to vmware-vdiskmanager is /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmware-vdiskmanager. In Terminal I can get into this folder without being root. For clarity, don't confuse your local Library directory in your home directory with top-level /Library. The utilty is in the system's library not yours.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

markw10 — Mon, 05 May 2008 05:34:04 GMT

I'm interested in doing this but can't find vdiskmanager. Where is it? It is part of the VMWare install or do I have to add it? I have looked in library/application support but there is no vmware folder. I prefer to use the GUI but if not can use the command line. I even went into Terminal and went to my Library directory but it won't let me change to the Application Support directory.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

mikeypas — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 23:34:40 GMT

Oh wow! Thank you so much for this document. I did searches and there are so many opinions how to resize a VM , it was overwhelming. I didnt mind downloading the 3 files, and your PDF document made everything super clear and easy. It worked fine.

I suppose if I had encountered any errors then I would be in trouble, and yes I do recognize that perhaps all this built into Fusion in a nice graphical interface would be ideal.. but anyway, just wanted to say thanks again!

Mike

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

polarpop — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:56:13 GMT

I had some errors, so I did this:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/140676?tstart=0

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

gbannist — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:45:34 GMT

I'm using the GUI.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:32:14 GMT

Are you using the GUI or command line? If the command line, what's the exact command you're entering?

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

gbannist — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:29:57 GMT

When I use vdiskmanager to resize the virtual disk I get the following:

Using log file /var/folders/rj/rj0LXbf5F34aopMLTZgvSU+++TI/-Tmp-//vmware-gbannist/vdiskmanager.log
Failed to expand the disk '/Users/gbannist/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows Vista.vmwarevm/Windows Vista.vmdk': The file already exists (41).

What am I missing?

thanks in advance,

Mike

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Robster50 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:34:33 GMT

Hmmmm

It seems if you want to boot from a CD (or iso file) you need to CONNECT the CD device!!!!!!!!!! Doh............

All done and up and working.

Still easier in Parallels BUT not as bad as I thought it was in VMware.

Plus maybe I did not lose the disk space either.......

Robin

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Robster50 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:12:09 GMT

Okay.

TRIED following the rules and suggestions in here but failed to make my VM boot from the LiveCD volume.

During the disk expand part (from 9GB to 15GB) I noticed I lost a huge amount of disk space, not sure how much but could be in the region of 5-15 GB's and I cannot find it!!!!!

I have given up trying to expand my VM, I may go back to Parallels do the expansion there, SO MUCH EASIER and then reconvert to VMware, not an ideal route!!!!!!!

In the meantime I copied my 'Private' VM back from a backup copy and rebooted, fully expecting the lost disk space to reappear but it has not!!!!!!!

Any ideas how to find and recover the space?

Cheers.

Robin

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Robster50 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:45:38 GMT

Damn

Why is this this all so hard!!!!!!!!!!

I used Parallels for a long time.

When I had to expand a drive it was a simpler process, no mucking about with the BIOS.

In the settings for the VM you could select the boot order.

VMware should really take a look, this is a MUCH better way of doing things.

Robin

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

matthewls — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:56:46 GMT

Dear Pat Lee,
Thanks for an outstanding guide and utility set. I was astonished at how easy it was to make this work (8-20GB, especially booting linux inside vm to gparted the vdisk--brilliant).
So, cheers to great work and help.
Best,
Matthew

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

fathub — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 07:58:38 GMT

Call me crazy but when I installed this program initially it prompted me to select the suggested size HD and could be changed later.....
I have never been so disappointed in a piece of software in 20 years of using computers....to do a simple task that the program tells me it could do later IF I WANTED TO I gotta go to university and become a friggin programmer to change this one task.....
I would have paid $500 for this software if VMWare just would have FINISHED it....this is a complete and utter failure for a supposedly professional piece of software.
I too could tell you how to diagnose and fix your own heat pump/refrigeration system but hell, isn't that what you paid me for and/or would think that when you switched it to cool from heat it would do just that....not ask you to go out and weld in a pilot operated 4 way system slide valve with HFC compatible driers and SLF.....so it will now cool as it said it would (except for the minor omission that it needed you to waste valuable hours to learn refrigeration, welding, refrigerant theory.....etc and install a days worth of STUFF).
If someone has a remote way to do this and wants to charge me for it please advise me.....

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

pomajp — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:54:56 GMT

Perfect! Thank You! I had already created a second hard drive but could not get it to be recognized. The disk management tool made this very easy though! Thanks for the help!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:22:26 GMT

Therein lies the rub for OS X users, there is no vmware disk mount utility for OS X so it creates a chicken-and-egg problem or requires two copies of Windows (VMs of course) to accomplish. Before vmware-vdiskmanager was ported to OS X, this is how I had to use that utility.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Xaneth — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:15:17 GMT

That's who I was trying to quote, but it seems that I'm not figuring out quite how to quote on this board. Glad to have run across it, the method works great, on Windows at least.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:25:09 GMT

You need to unsuspend your virtual machine and go through the normal power off cycle (shutdown -h now). Once the machine shows a large Play button (|>), then the other options become available. There's message explaining this requirement in Fusion 1.1.x

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

juggernaut1970 — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:23:38 GMT

Never mind... It turns out I needed to actually "power down" my VM. d'oh!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

juggernaut1970 — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:20:21 GMT

Looking at the nice PDF, I saw the first option: create new virtual hard drive, and think, aha! That's for me.

Unfortunately, all the options under the "+" sign in preferences for that VM are grayed out, except "add shared drive." The guest OS (ubuntu) is paused, so I'm guessing that's not it... Any suggestions on what I may be missing?

Thanks!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

etung — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:50:07 GMT

FYI: That link was already posted about 5 months ago by zyx100 further up in this thread.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

ThomasNederman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:49:23 GMT

Why not use VMware convertor ? Works fine i think, or am i missing anytsomething ?

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

gar77 — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 08:16:58 GMT

Yes I also used this method, and I agree it is easier. As you said this thread is for Fusion (Macs) but I would recommend the other method for increasing a virtual hard disk on Windows.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Xaneth — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 06:45:03 GMT

here is a good article which explaines a different method to change Virtual Disk size:

http://www.vmweekly.com/articles/expanding_the_virtual_disk_size_in_4_steps/1/

Thanks for this, this is by far easier than the GUI based description, which seems to be for MAC? Anyway, much easier to use. This method works in a Windows host environment as well.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

WoodyZ — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:40:58 GMT

gar77 wrote: Any idea where I might find full instructions on how to resize a virtual disk in a Windows host environment?

Search for vdiskmanager in http://www.vmware.com/pdf/ws6_manual.pdf

However the Utility Eric pointed you to is the easiest way to do it and it's pretty self-explanatory one you take a good look at it.

Robert D. Petruska's DiskManager GUI

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

gar77 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:56:22 GMT

Thanks for the reply etung. Any idea where I might find full instructions on how to resize a virtual disk in a Windows host environment?

I appreciate your time and I am sorry for posting in the incorrect forum. I am new to VMWare technologies.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

etung — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:45:02 GMT

I had downloaded vdiskmanager GUI and VMX Extras etc. as documented but as they don't run, I gather they are for MAC OS?

Yes. This is the Fusion subforum, and Fusion is for Macs.

I would suggest RDPetruska's DiskManager GUI

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

gar77 — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:51:41 GMT

Hi there,

I am a bit confused so apologies if this is a silly question. I need to expand the size of a virtual disk of a Windows machine. However I am also hosting (via VM Workstation) the virtual machine on a Windows platform. In this case is there a separate list of instructions? I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

I had downloaded vdiskmanager GUI and VMX Extras etc. as documented but as they don't run, I gather they are for MAC OS?? (Silly me!)

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

CSI95 — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:51:13 GMT

Well, I couldn't find an easier way to do this, so I just followed the directions in the PDF file. It did work, but it was not without a few quirks. I post them here in case someone else runs in to these problems in the future.

First -- back up your virtual machine before you do anything! You'll regret it if you don't and something goes bad...

Next, the vdiskmanager GUI crashed on me during the resize the first time I ran it. When I ran the 2nd time, it would not work. It give me some cryptic error saying the file already existed. With nothing left to lose, I got adventurous. I right clicked on the virtual machine and clicked the show package contents link. I then deleted some oddly named file that ended in .tmp and tried again. This time vdiskmanager GUI worked.

Finally, the newly resized virtual machine would not run after I finished all the steps in the PDF. Windows kept crashing on me during the boot. I had to insert me Vista Install CD, and do a Repair. Once I did that, Windows did start up and everything seems to work.

I hope this helps!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Studio7Media — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:23:28 GMT

Agreed. If you can find an easier way, let the thread know. I guess the idea here is that you can't change the size of your physical HD, so the same applies with Virtual HD's.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

etung — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:47:06 GMT

Wasn't there some setting in the install that let me choose if I wanted a fixed size drive, or one that could expand? Is this really the complicated process we need in order to expand?

Two different things are being discussed.

1. The install option refers to expanding on the host (the guest always sees the same size drive).
2. The process this thread talks about refers to changing the guest's view of the disk. This is difficult because in real life, you can't just change the size of your disk (well, not without cloning it to a larger drive), and so guests aren't able to adjust; the extra work is necessary to get them to recognize the new space.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

CSI95 — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:39:15 GMT

I must be missing something. It can't really be this difficult to add space to a VMWare Virtual Machine, can it?

Wasn't there some setting in the install that let me choose if I wanted a fixed size drive, or one that could expand? Is this really the complicated process we need in order to expand?

I was expecting something in the Virtual Machine setting that let me increase disk size, not a bunch of command line utilites and copying my entire installation to a new disk.

Did I just misinterpret what you're saying, or is it really this difficult?

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

prb44t — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:59:07 GMT

Hi All. I need some help. I have followed the directions through step 20. When I hit apply to g-partition to maximize the unallocated space. I get error that simply says -- "Cannot Apply". It allows me to save the error text, but I am not sure on which partition its saving the data. When I am in the MAC OS I cannot find the file gparted_details.html. So I don't know what the issue is. I read that sometimes gpartion has issues with NTFS and I need to run a chkdsk on the windows OS. I did that but am still having the issue. Any ideas please/???

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

tribalcowboy — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:21:22 GMT

Quick question. I need to make my hard drive larger and Ghost sounds great. I have XP Pro already, so I don't need to upgrade. I cannot find my XP disk anymore. Will I still be able to do what you stated?

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

WebVeteran — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:40:21 GMT

Yes but in the end, both excersizes give you many free GBs. My philosphy is to lose weight than buy a bigger chair. XP will be faster, take less room, be more portable, and suspend/restore now takes two seconds flat. Why allow XP to bloat into more space rather than tame it?

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

WoodyZ — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:56:26 GMT

WebVeteran wrote:Have you tried shrinking first? I set my max to 10GB. After a few weeks I was at 8GB. After the shrink, it went down to 3GB. Which is like adding 5GB.

I wrote up a step-by-step for this...http://www.webveteran.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/1/9/Making-a-smaller-virtual-machine-disc

The overall context of this thread is not so much about shrinking a sparse disk, which is what your post and URL is about, but changing the physical capacity of a virtual disk. Which are two entirely different concepts.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

WebVeteran — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:41:01 GMT

Have you tried shrinking first?

I set my max to 10GB. After a few weeks I was at 8GB. After the shrink, it went down to 3GB. Which is like adding 5GB.

I wrote up a step-by-step for this...
http://www.webveteran.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/1/9/Making-a-smaller-virtual-machine-disc

Another + is the save/restore is nearly instant now!

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:56:56 GMT

Sorry vmware-vdiskmanager doesn't support reducing the disk capacity only expanding it. For dynamically allocating disks it's enough to cap the OS partition at the smaller size and not worry about the virtual disk capacity. No such luck for pre-allocated disks. vmkfstools in ESX Server can reduce VMDK sizes but not vmware-vdiskmanager. Depending on what tools you own you can create a new 30 GB blank disk, then use Ghost or Acronis to do a virtual disk-to-virtual disk transfer from your 50 GB to a 30 GB dynamically allocating disk, saving you some temporary disk space. Delete the 50 GB pre-allocated, then convert the allocated portion of the 30 GB virtual disk to pre-allocated. Finally you would defrag the 30 GB pre-allocated disk on the host.

If you don't own a commercial disk imaging tool, you can download a Linux livecd product and use dd to move your data between your two virtual disks. Maybe gparted can do this, I have not checked.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Atomotti — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:41:04 GMT

The whole thread is about resizing (expanding) a disk. What about reducing a preallocated disk? I would like to reduce my preallocated 50 GB Fusion disk to 30 GB. Guest OS is Windows XP and it is already reduced to 30 GB. 20 GB unallocated disk space is now left.

Thanks, Atomotti

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:18:07 GMT

In addition to running iPartition, I assume it relocates the logical filesystem (if say it were at the end of the physical disk) so the free space is at the end of partition. You would need a bootable disk to expand the FAT32/NTFS file system to take advantage of the new space. This is all outside of Fusion's scope.

Fusion creates a raw disk mapping that includes the geometry of the logical partition the Boot Camp OS resides in. This virtual disk will be invalided or worse become an inaccurate representation of the Boot Camp partition size. You can either re-create the raw disk mapping (using vmware-rawdiskCreator) or delete the entire Boot Camp partition meta files which forces Fusion to re-create all the meta information about your Boot Camp partition.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

FarNorth — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 12:12:37 GMT

If I increase the size of the existing Boot Camp partition using iPartition 3.0, how would that impact Fusion? (iPartition 3.0 is compatible with Intel Macs.) That would be a simple, painless graphic solution to the problem of increasing partition size.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 04:55:43 GMT

damax99 wrote:

In summary, I think I was able to allocate the remaining 20GB using Vista's Disk Management without using gparted.

This may be preferable given other users have had problems with gparted cds on GPT-formatted volumes that may or may not be fixable using fixboot after expanding a logical partition containing Vista.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

damax99 — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 03:19:07 GMT

I had focus and it still didn't work. I did get F2 to exit to the BIOS setup by going into System Preferences / Keyboards & Mouse and changing the keyboard setting to use for F1, F2, etc. as standard function keys.

Having gotten past step 12 I found that when I got to step 17 my virtual hard disk was completed allocated to the 40GB and the Resize/Move button was grayed out. As such, it completely appears that all 40GB are now fully allocated.

In thinking about the 2nd instance (Virtual Machine) of XP or Vista, I'd think that I wouldn't be able to do anything with the Virtual Machine I was trying to expand because they are considered completely separate virtual systems.

In summary, I think I was able to allocate the remaining 20GB using Vista's Disk Management without using gparted.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

etung — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 02:27:05 GMT

Fn-F2 didn't work either.

Are you sure the guest had focus and you pressed it fast enough?

My intention was to try the gparted CD image per step 12 but since I couldn't get to the BIOS setup, I couldn't change the boot order to boot from it.

If you want to get into the BIOS, an alternative to pressing F2 is to add the following line to the .vmx (usual caveats: do this while the VM is powered off and Fusion doesn't have the VM open):

bios.forceSetupOnce = "TRUE"

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

damax99 — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 01:46:34 GMT

Thanks for the quick response etung. Fn-F2 didn't work either. My intention was to try the gparted CD image per step 12 but since I couldn't get to the BIOS setup, I couldn't change the boot order to boot from it.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

etung — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:26:02 GMT

Every time I tried to press F2 it just increased the screen brightness screen

Try Fn-F2 instead - some Mac keyboards have the function keys not really function keys by default.

it appears that this thread recommended using another VM instance of XP or Vista to change the partition

The original method in the PDF recommends using a free, open-source live CD to change the partition - no extra XP/Vista necessary. Other people pointed out that if you have an extra XP/Vista VM, this is another option.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

damax99 — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:22:10 GMT

I'd like to a pass along a problem I had with with step 12 of Pat's procedure and how I was able to extend the partition by using Vista's Disk Management function. It appears to work but I welcome thoughts from others on if I may have another problem that I don't know about. I should also say that I'm new to Mac OS X and am using an iMac.

I successfully got through steps 1-11 in my attempt to extend my virtual hard disk from 20GB to 40GB. My problem began on step 12 when I couldn't get F2 to startup the BIOS setup program. Every time I tried to press F2 it just increased the screen brightness screen and after the BIOS delay, Vista would start up. Perhaps there's something different I need to do to get the BIOS setup to start.

After shutting down Vista and trying step 12 several times, I went into Vista's Computer Management / Disk Management and could see that I had 20GB allocated and the new 20GB Unallocated. I performed the Extend a Volume action (More Actions / All Tasks / Extend a Volume) entered the remaining amount as displayed (about 20K MB) and then saved it. The volume now appeared as 40GB in Disk Management and shows the full 40GB in other places.

In short, it seems to have worked but I'm a bit concerned because it appears that this thread recommended using another VM instance of XP or Vista to change the partition. I used the active VM to make the change.

Any thoughts are welcome on if there might be an issue with what I did and also on why I couldn't get F2 to startup the BIOS setup.
Thanks

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

clive_long — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 08:37:02 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for these instructions. I increased the disk size by a slight variation on the given instructions, but essentially it is the same technique in the detailed instructions given. The "challenge" is to have any easy-to-use (that means graphical for me) application to resize the disk partition, but one cannot resize active/mounted partitions. So the idea is to have the disk resized by an environment where the virtual disk is not mounted/active. In the instructions given, that is booting GParted , in my notes that is run GParted in a "slave" Linux guest - that's the only variation in approach.

Host: Linux with disk space under the control of lvm (Logical Volume Manager)

Guest 1: Win XP << This has drive C: that needs to be increased in size

Guest 2: Linux

1. Backup on Linux host the virtual disk to be increased, in my case the vmdk assigned to Win XP guest 1. This is made easy by VM because all the relevant files are in one directory.

2. Run vmware-vdiskmanager in Linux host and increase size of virtual disk (see User Guide for syntax and examples)

3. Attach, as a new disk drive, the vmdk file that contains the Win XP C: drive to Linux guest 2 VM. Start the Linux guest 2 and install GParted.

4. Start GParted in Linux Guest 2. In GParted go to menu (GParted > Devices) and change the "device" to one of the /dev/sdx options. It should be apparent from the "Flags" which is the correct device. In my case it was "boot". Set up the partition resize (as in the detailed written instructions) and run it.

5. Stop the Linux Guest 2 and restart Win XP guest 1. As in detailed instructions, Windows checks the partition then starts. The C: drive is resized.

Notes

GParted cannot resize lvm (Logical Volume Manager) partitions - so can't be used to increase size of my host partitions. But maybe there are tools to resize lvms. I need to look into that.

For me, the really clever thing about the technique that has been given in the original posting, is that although the host uses lvm, and the virtual disk is actually a vmdk file on the host, within either vm, the file appears as a boot partition or extended or logical partition and GParted can do its resizing work on it in the guest.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:26:47 GMT

FWIW, many of the steps in that article do not apply on a OS X (nearly steps 1 - 3a). But it does encourage making a backup which can't be stressed enough. It also discusses deleting snapshots which may not be obvious for expanding base disks. Using diskpart is an alternative, but for me it has not been as convenient as booting into gparted.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

etung — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 12:21:43 GMT

here is a good article which explaines a different method to change Virtual Disk size:

Actually, it's the same technique. Pat's detailed instructions comprise steps 3b and 4 of your link, except Pat used a GUI instead of the shell, and a gparted ISO instead of diskpart from a backup Windows VM.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

zyx100 — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:31:40 GMT

here is a good article which explaines a different method to change Virtual Disk size:

http://www.vmweekly.com/articles/expanding_the_virtual_disk_size_in_4_steps/1/

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Studio7Media — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 18:58:57 GMT

Hi All,

If you have Ghost (I use 2003), you can easily resize your drive without the risk to your data:

note: I am using VMWare Fusion 1.0 / resized from 5gb to 20gb

Create/Add a second Virtual Drive to your machine that will represent your desired larger HD size.
Boot Virtual Machine so that the OS recogizes the second drive. Restart
Go into VM BIOS by pressing F2, and change your default boot order: CDROM, Floppy (if you want), HD.
Boot with Ghost 2003 or older , and clone drive
Boot VM with new Virtual HD.

In my case I created a new virtual machine (because I also wanted to upgrade from XP Home to Pro); in the VM wizard, I manually selected the newly created vitural drive and booted. My new OS drive was now 20gb's instead of 5gb's. All this worked great, and only took about 10 minutes!

LEGAL STUFF (as mentioned by Pat Lee)

This is my personal document and not supported in any way by VMware.
Also, I take no responsibility for any of the tools recommended or
issues in my write up.

As always, make a backup of your virtual disk before performing
resizing your disk as actions like these that could make your virtual
machine unbootable. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Hope this is helpful to folks. Any and all feedback is welcome.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

rcardona2k — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:50:00 GMT

Hmm... they worked for me:

1) Download the latest viskdiskmanager GUI
New version: 0.2007.06.18

2) Download the latest VMX Extras
VMX Extras

3) Download the latest Gparted Live CD disk image (ISO)
GParted LiveCD

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

hejish — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:23:12 GMT

The PDF needs new links - the old links to vmware sites for the software do not work

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructio

Hux — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 23:57:43 GMT

They need a Mac OS gui or Linux tool.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructio

RDPetruska — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:39:17 GMT

That process will work too. It requires another Windows virtual machine, which some users may not have... and it requires a version of Windows new enough to contain the DiskPart utility.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructio

av_boy — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:30:40 GMT

This seems like a very involved process...

I just switched to VMWare from parallels and I am needing to resize a disk.

Will someone explain to me why the way I did it in parallels wouldnt work for vmware?

Basically what I would do is use the disk tool to make the disk bigger.
Mount the disk to "a different vm with windows" (not the boot disk)
Boot to the "other windows vm" and Use the windows partition manager to expand the disk.

Thanks!

-sean

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Obeechi — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:36:38 GMT

I used this guide to resize my disk and then my partition, and I used gparted... and used my Vista installation disk afterwards to make repairs... then... I did it again... only this time, I didn't use gparted, but instead just used vdiskmanager to expand my disk while the VM was shut down totally, and Fusion was quit, ... then booted to Vista VM and used Vista's Computer Management snap in to resize (expand) the partition... both steps were ultra quick..

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

nshirey — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:00:55 GMT

This is what I was looking for, thank you.

Re: Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Obeechi — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:31:17 GMT

Well, the bit about creating a second disk and using it just for Data never occured to me... I suppose that could be on an external drive... of course you could also move the Data to an external drive formated non-virtually in NTFS... and then what about using MacDrive to save this same data to an HFS+ partition.. would that mean you wouldn't have to set aside a virtual disk area within the same HFS+ partition... but someone here was concerned about using MacDrive in a Virtual environment... gee and I just forked over money for it thinking I would need it... (so does this mean I should only use MacDrive in a native environment, which I really don't plan on using anymore... )

Resizing a Virtual Disk for Windows Guests with Step by Step Instructions

Pat Lee — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 20:40:19 GMT

There have been a number of questions on how to resize virtual disks and confusion around how this works with regards to Windows partitions.

While the vdiskmanager tools to resize the virtual disks are pretty quick, you still have to use third party tools to get to the desired end point of a larger Windows system virtual disk or actually partition in this case.

To make it easier for people to resize their virtual drives and operating system partition, I took some of my fleeting personal time to write this overview that includes all the steps required to resize a virtual disk with vdiskmanager GUI and then resize the partition with the open source GParted Live CD (ISO).

LEGAL STUFF
This is my personal document and not supported in any way by VMware. Also, I take no responsibility for any of the tools recommended or issues in my write up.

As always, make a backup of your virtual disk before performing resizing your disk as actions like these that could make your virtual machine unbootable. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Hope this is helpful to folks. Any and all feedback is welcome.

Pat