Increase Disk Size Issues

[Lynn300]

I just upgraded from Fusion 4 to 5 in preparation of upgrading from Windows 7 to 8.  When I initially installed my VM several months ago I waited for the installation to prompt me about how much disk space I wanted to allocate, but it never did.  It created the VM with 20GB (annoying), which would work if Windows never wanted to do an update and you never wanted to save a file to the VM. 

I used Fusion to increase the Disk Size to 122GB (I have over 600GB available on my Mac) and it allocated properly and when I opened windows the space was properly available on the C drive.  However, when I view the VM from Fusion's Virtual Machine Library it reads 20GB. 

After over an hour reading the VMWare knowledgebase I found an article that stated I needed to Increase the Disk using Mac's Disk Utility; however, that option is disabled/greyed out to me.  Another article suggested a ton of utility downloads to do this and overall I am lost.  This would have been completely avoidable BS if the install would have allowed me to specify my disk size on installtion of the virtual machine.  Alas, that is was not the case. 

My question is does the fact my windows hard drive shows 122GB total space, but the VMWare Virtual Machine Library shows 20GB okay and what can I expect if I start tyring to upgrade to Windows 8 in terms of space?  Is there 20 or 122GB allocated?

Thanks.

[avanish321]

My question is does the fact my windows hard drive shows 122GB total  space, but the VMWare Virtual Machine Library shows 20GB okay and what  can I expect if I start tyring to upgrade to Windows 8 in terms of  space?  Is there 20 or 122GB allocated?

when you check  from mac side, the size reflects the space actually used by guest os.

can you tell what is the space used in C drive of your guest os?

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

I just upgraded from Fusion 4 to 5 in preparation of upgrading from Windows 7 to 8.  When I initially installed my VM several months ago I waited for the installation to prompt me about how much disk space I wanted to allocate, but it never did.  It created the VM with 20GB (annoying), which would work if Windows never wanted to do an update and you never wanted to save a file to the VM.

IIRC A Windows 7 Virtual Machine defaults to a 40 GB in VMware Fusion 4.x however regardless of its default size one can always modify the Virtual Hardware Settings prior to installing an OS.  Anyway increasing the size of a Virtual hard Disk is a two step process, the first of which is done in the Virtual Machine's Hard Disk Settings.  The second part is done with either a 3rd party utility or the OS itself, when applicable and in the case of Windows 7 it's applicable.

In Windows 7, simply go into Disk Management and extend the Volume, it task but a few seconds.

Note: Before performing any disk level operations such as this one should ensure that one has a proper* backup of the Virtual Machine Package.

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* It is a known fact that Time Machine is not 100% reliable backing up/restoring Virtual Machines under all circumstances/conditions.  Also backing up Virtual Machines via Time Machine is disk/time intensive and wastes a tremendous amount of space for something that may be corrupt and worthless come time to restore it.  At a minimum I would exclude Virtual Machines from Time Machine and with the Virtual Machines shutdown, not suspended, and VMware Fusion closed then manually copy the Virtual Machines Package(s) to an alternate location, preferably on to a different physical hard disk.  Then keep the User Data that is stored within the Virtual Machine backed up off of the Virtual Machine on a regular basis so as to always have a current User Data Backup.  If you have to restore a properly backed up Virtual Machine that is not as current at least you'll have a working Virtual Machine and current User Data to go forward with when you find out your Time Machine Backup of the Virtual Machine fails.

[Lynn300]

Thanks.  That took care of it.