Resize VMDK Smaller

[halemeister]

I have a 250 GB VMDK disk on a VM that I want to make smaller. I used Partition Manger to resize the partition in Windows to 100 GB but how do I make it smaller in Virtual Center, it will only allow me to make it bigger? Is this something I have to do at the console?

[patrickds]

it used to be possible using vmkfstools at the console, but no longer is.

afaik you can only do it by creating a new, smaller vmdk and copying everything from the other one into it.

[java_cat33]

You can use VMware converter to reduce the size of a vmdk....

[TomHowarth]

the quickest and easiest way of doing this it to run converter on it. by using this tool you do not have to do the Partition magic resize. and it can also resize system partitions too. converter can be found here and converter documentation is found here

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Tom Howarth

VMware Communities User Moderator

[patrickds]

like others have already said: using converter to do this is the easiest way(it actually creates a new vm and vmdk and copies everything from the old one into it), but you could use any method you like to do the copying.

Just remember that doing this with a system disk will require you to make it bootable and set an active partition to be able to start the resulting system.

Converter takes care of all this for you.