What is the fastest way to change HDD size of a VM?

[ahmd9]

I'm using Workstation 8 to test our software and how it bahaves in low free space HDD conditions. For that I installed Windows Vista 32-bit on a 40GB hard drive in a virtual machine. I can easily change the amount of RAM used for that VM but I can't seem to find an easy way to change the size of HDD. I basically need to shrink it down to 20GB, run some tests and then restore it back to 40GB.

PS. I keep finding some unorthodox ways of doing it.... so I was wondering, what is easier for me at this point, to fill up 20GB on the virtual hard drive or look for a method to change VM hard drive size?

[sparrowangelste]

You could actually leave it bigger and then shrink it in windows disk manager

that would be the simplest

[a_p_]

While it's pretty easy to grow a disk/partition, it may require much more work to shrink it. I think your idea to fill the disk with files might be the easiest way to go. I had a situation like this some time ago and decided to create a folder with several 1GB dummy files, which allowed me to easily change the free disk space by just copying or deleting one or more of these files.

André

[sakibpavel]

Please see

See: http://vsphere-land.com/tips-tricks/re-sizing-virtual-disks

Sakibpavel 

[ahmd9]

Thank you for your suggestions. I looked them over and indeed filling up the disk with large dummy files seems to be the fastest (and most importantly -- easiest) way to achieve what I want.