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uyozTic
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enlarged disk too much, now VM won't boot

i have a VM using half of avail space on a 500GB drive. i wanted to expand it to use the remaing ~250gb. i entered the max value listed in hardware settings for VM disk. appears that was too much and now a swap partition can't load.

can i save this VM another way or is shrinking the only way? 

from another post here i saw this.

  virtualman.wordpress.com/2016/02/24/shrink-a-vmware-virtual-machine-disk-vmdk/

1. but my VM won't even boot up so i can go and shrink disk.
2. from the instructions it mentions migrate or copy...do i have to migrate or copy it to another datastore? would prefer to use the whole drive it is currently on.

tia

following are the error messages.

----------------------------------------------------------------
msg when power on attempt:   Failed to power on virtual machine [name]. Module 'MonitorLoop' power on failed. Click here for more details."

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Failed - Module 'MonitorLoop' power on failed.
Errors

    Module 'MonitorLoop' power on failed.
    Failed to extend swap file /vmfs/volumes/[name of swap vswp].vswp from 0 KB to 12582912 KB : No space left on device
    Current swap file size is 0 KB.
    Failed to extend the virtual machine swap file
    Could not power on virtual machine: No space left on device.
    Failed to power on VM.
    Failed to start the virtual machine.

msg when editing VM hardware configuration:   
    Enter a disk size which is larger than its original capacity.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
storage stat for this disk:

STORAGE  FREE: 444 MB
                       100%
USED:             465.07 GB
CAPACITY:      465.5 GB
-----------------------------------------------------------------

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uyozTic
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yes i have seen "flat" files before but can't say i spent much time understanding the diff between the files. just knew one was the actual virtual disk and one a text descriptor file containing a link to the "flat" file.

prior to your suggestion of using vmkfstools to copy name.vmdk i had mostly ssh'd to host and used scp to copy the files to NAS usually just for backup.

as to why there was name-flat.vmdk & name-flat-flat.vmdk in the folder i used vmkfstools per your instruction is more likely i renamed them so i wouldn't copy over something or mess something up. and i had forgotten i had done that. i tested using vmkfstools again to a test folder and it copied over the name.vmdk and name-flat.vmdk as expected.  so, my error in renaming them, went to bed and forgot. anyways, got it sorted out and VM loaded and running thanks to you & Joerge's help.

i already have winscp installed, have used it before. but didn't use it this time. very nice util & appreciate the reminder.

after you pointing out the difference between vSphere data store browser i checked it out. it's not something i use much at all but i now see the diff you bring to my attention. doesn't list the name-flat.vmdk. indeed, it is confusing.

i did a little more searching on "flat" vmdk and found your post http://communities.vmware.com/thread/331783

and this link,  http://searchvmware.techtarget.com/tip/Understanding-the-files-that-make-up-a-VMware-virtual-machine

i've saved the links to readup on.

appreciate the great help & education!!

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