How to re-thin a disk?

[chimoe125]

Hello,

I have configured one of my VMs to Thin Provision about 8months ago. The disk size was about 100GB, over time it grew to around 80GB of data. But this weekend I cleaned up the server storage and brought the disk usage to only 15GB (removed bunch of log files). But in Vmware, it still showing the size of the disk is 80GB, so the vmdk file is still 80GB. How can I re-thin the disk so it actually goes down to the current used space?

Thanks,

[AndreTheGiant · Accepted solution]

Gest OS does not clean the block when you delete a file.

You can use sdelete (for Windows) to do this.

Andre

[vmroyale]

Hello.

You can use VMware Tools shrink function or Sysinternals' sdelete.

Good Luck!

[chimoe125]

Hello,

I opened VMware tools and clicked Shrink tab howerver it says:

Shrink Disk is disabled for this virtual machine. Shrinking is disabled for virutal disks not used in persistent mode and other fators.

I ended up downloading the sDelete. Is the command i'm suppose to run -z or -c ?

[vmroyale]

Use the command:

sdelete -c

[chimoe125]

Thanks all,

I'm running it now. So after running the sdelete -c it will automatically bring the vmdk file down to the actual used space?

[chimoe125]

Hello,

I ran the sdelete -c option. It all finished up but still the size is 80GB. I tried restarting the VM but still no go. Anything i'm missing?

[vmroyale]

You will need to SVMotion it or clone it using vmkfstools now.