Re-allocate disk space?

[virtuallyapro]

Hi,

My guest OS (Windows 7) ballooned to it's disk space limit because of a goof in SPSS. I have since deleted the temporary files that caused the C drive to fill up, but the 2GB .vmdk files are still there - too many of them! The guest OS tells me I'm using 20GB of a 40GB C drive, while the Finder says the virtual machine package is 40GB.

How can I get the virtual machine to reassess its own disk space requirements and do away with some of those extra 2GB .vmdk files?

I'm desperate; I need the disk space to finish the SPSS project!

Thanks!

[Kasraeian]

Hi, Welcome to forum

Have you got access to any other system with windows OS?

If you have access to any system with windows OS, you can use VMware Converter to convert your VM, during the conversion you can decrease the size of virtual disk.

your source and destination platform can be VMware Fusion.

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[WoodyZ]

If you do not have a Snapshot in play you can simply shrink the virtual hard drive using VMware Tools from within the Virtual Machine.

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

Also have a look at:

VMware Fusion (menu bar) > Help > Search > type Shrink and then select Clean Up a Hard Disk

[virtuallyapro]

Thanks for all the great advice. Here's how it shook out:

I had been aware of the shrink function in VMware Tools, but didn't have enough disk space on the host to perform the function (I wasn't clear in my original post that, with the guest taking up all 40GB, I was really up against a wall).

So, I started downloading the standalone VMware Converter. Then I saw the post affirming my hunch that Tools would work to shrink the virtual C drive. Because I had no experience with Converter, I decided the simplest solution would be to free up some space by moving files to my external hard drive and trying the shrink function in Tools, again. It worked!

Among the many valuable things I learned from this experience was that "shrink" needs some space - it causes the virtual machine to expand a little before it causes it to contract. But I didn't have to free up too much - a few GB - and the process was ultimately very effective.

Thanks, again!