Free-up disk

[jeffjeff33]

I'm running VMWare Fusion 3.1.3 on my Mac, basically just for XP and Quicken.  I'm only using 11g of the 40g disk space allocated.

Is there a way to free up some of this disk for my Mac to use?

When I try to resize it, I get this message:

          Disk size can range from 40.0 to 2040.0 GB

Thanks

J

[WoodyZ]

Once an OS has been installed in the Virtual Machine it cannot be resized smaller by VMware Fusion however resizing the virtual hard disk smaller is not going to resolve your issue.

If you didn't pre-allocate the virtual hard disk and do not have any Snapshots (in version 3 and earlier) you can shrink the disk to free up some Host disk space.

VMware Fusion (menu bar) > Help > Search > type Shrink and then select Open the VMware Tools Control Panel

If you have Snapshots then you'll need to delete any Snapshots to free up Host Disk space and in turn be able to shrink the virtual hard disk.

[ChipMcK]

Most likely the DiskManager in your XP vm is reporting that the partition size as 40GB.

This permits XP to use up to 40GB of the virtual disk, which will cause the OSX file to grow also.

The following products, all free as of Nov 2011, will permit you to safely resize the partition

(and the OSX file) as you wish:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

http://www.partition-tool.com/

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-express/

Besure to acquire the 'latest' release as this ability to safely resize was added over the last 2 years.

Best!

[WoodyZ]

While the utilities you mention are good to know about nonetheless I do not believe those utilities are applicable to the issue at hand.  If I'm correct about what the OP is trying to do, free up Host disk space, then as long as the virtual hard disk is not pre-allocated and does not have any Snapshots then all that is needed is to Shrink the disk to gain back space on the Host.  If pre-allocated it can be unchecked after the Snapshots are deleted and then the disk can be shrunk.  There really is no need to make the existing size of the disk/partition smaller unless the OP wants to have a pre-allocated disk.

[jeffjeff33]

Hey;

Thanks for all the advice.

But I'm really not familiar with alot of the terms you are using. I don't know if I want to have a pre-allocated disk or not, don't have a clear idea of why I'd want to have a snapshot, etc.

All I want is to free up disk on my Mac so I can use it for Mac applications. Right now I have 40g of VM/XP and am only using 11G.

Could you give me some direction in layman's terms?

Thanks

[WoodyZ]

To help figure out what is what the best way to provide comprehensive diagnostic information is to use the "Collect Support Information" command from the VMware Fusion (menu bar) > Help > Collect Support Information and then attach the .tgz file it created on your Desktop to a reply post.

[orthohin]

                          

Please follow this.. Shrink recipe:    1. First backup your guest os disk image and other files (just in case something goes wrong) + make sure you have plenty of spare disk space on your harddrive.    2. Start Windows guest OS in VMWare Fusion and login as administrator    3. Clean up & defrag guest OS disk image from within guest OS      * Delete all unused files, empty your trash can, delete your browser cache etc.      * Defragment your guest OS (f.x. using “defrag c:” in the cmd prompt).    4. Zero out unused disk space in guest OS disk image      * Download Mark Russinovich’s disk erase tool SDelete v1.51+ and place it on the local guest drive (*1).      * From a command prompt navigate to where you saved the above delete tool and write “sdelete -c c:”, which will clear all free disk space    5. Close guest OS and VMWare      * Shutdown your Windows guest OS.      * Quit VMWare fusion    6. Shrink disk image using VMWare’s diskTool      * Navigate to the VMWare Fusion tools directory. E.g. type “cd /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/MacOS”      * Run VMWare Fusion’s diskTool command with the shrink option “-k” to compact your virtual drive (*.vmdk). E.g. type “./diskTool -k 0 full-path-to-your-virtual-desk-image.vmdk”. (*2)    7. Finished! 

[ChipMcK]

And if the partition size is not adjusted, the OSX file will grow/expand.