That giant GB sucking sound

[GBsGONE]

OK. No snapshots are present, but now my virtual machine boots up using a .vmdk file (no .vmdk files are searchable in spotlight)

and takes up 121 GB on my macbooks harddrive, and is unshrinkable! The Win XP Pro VM is only 50GB total size, within

a 250GB macbook OS X 10.5.6.

I'm a network superuser at a 50,000-employee academic institution who is trialing the desktop vmware fusion

for our company and the support has been less than helpful, and less than prompt.

THanks

Those files do not exist on my mac; i checked again just now.. Please review the responses and screenshots in our mutual email chain.

Thanks

On Feb 2, 2009, at 6:08 AM, VMware Technical Support wrote:

• Please do not change the subject line of this email if you wish to

respond. **

Hello Michael,

Support Request 1154049095.

Please follow the steps given below to resolve this issue.

1. Try to search the following files in spot light and delete it from your Mac.

a) Windows XP Professional-000001.vmdk

b) Windows XP Professional-000002.vmdk

c) Windows XP Professional-000003.vmdk

d) Windows XP Professional-000004.vmdk

2.Restart your mac.

3.Launch Fusion.

4.Click Virtual Machine > settings > Hard disks.

5.Check whether you can see a check mark before Pre allocated Disks.Uncheck the Pre-allocated disk space in that window and click on apply 6.start the virtual Machine and try to shrink the Virtual machine.

Please feel free to contact me by replying to this email should you need further information. If the issue is resolved please confirm the closure of the Support Request 1154049095.

Regards,

Saravanan.

VMware Fusion Technical Support

For Filing Support Requests Online

http://support.vmware.com/selfsupport/

Knowledge base of troubleshooting information by product http://www.vmware.com/kb VMware Fusion Discussion Forums http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/desktop/fusion

I already tried to locate those files. My response 1/28 is below. The screenshots I sent you do not display those files. Please review our mutual email chain. Do I delete the existing .vmdk files? Will the whole vm hard disk crash if i do?

On Jan 28, 2009, at 5:31 PM, Michael Adolph wrote:

<Picture 2.png>

Hi

A search of spotlight for the files you listed did not locate any of them. The screenshot above indicates the result of a search for ".vmdk". Should I delete these?

Thanks,

On Jan 27, 2009, at 7:43 AM, VMware Technical Support wrote:

• Please do not change the subject line of this email if you wish to

respond. **

Hello Michael,

Support Request 1154049095.

Please follow the steps given below to resolve this issue.

1. Try to search the following files in spot light and delete it from your Mac.

a) Windows XP Professional-000001.vmdk

b) Windows XP Professional-000002.vmdk

c) Windows XP Professional-000003.vmdk

d) Windows XP Professional-000004.vmdk

2.Restart your mac.

3.Launch Fusion.

4.Click Virtual Machine > settings > Hard disks.

5.Check whether you can see a check mark before Pre allocated Disks.Uncheck the Pre-allocated disk space in that window and click on apply 6.start the virtual Machine and try to shrink the Virtual machine.

Please feel free to contact me by replying to this email should you need further information. If the issue is resolved please confirm the closure of the Support Request 1154049095.

Regards,

Saravanan.

VMware Fusion Technical Support

For Filing Support Requests Online

http://support.vmware.com/selfsupport/

Knowledge base of troubleshooting information by product http://www.vmware.com/kb VMware Fusion Discussion Forums http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/desktop/fusion

Hi

A search of spotlight for the files you listed did not locate any of them. The screenshot above indicates the result of a search for ".vmdk". Should I delete these?

Thanks,

On Jan 27, 2009, at 7:43 AM, VMware Technical Support wrote:

• Please do not change the subject line of this email if you wish to

respond. **

Hello Michael,

Support Request 1154049095.

Please follow the steps given below to resolve this issue.

1. Try to search the following files in spot light and delete it from your Mac.

a) Windows XP Professional-000001.vmdk

b) Windows XP Professional-000002.vmdk

c) Windows XP Professional-000003.vmdk

d) Windows XP Professional-000004.vmdk

2.Restart your mac.

3.Launch Fusion.

4.Click Virtual Machine > settings > Hard disks.

5.Check whether you can see a check mark before Pre allocated Disks.Uncheck the Pre-allocated disk space in that window and click on apply 6.start the virtual Machine and try to shrink the Virtual machine.

Please feel free to contact me by replying to this email should you need further information. If the issue is resolved please confirm the closure of the Support Request 1154049095.

Regards,

Saravanan.

VMware Fusion Technical Support

For Filing Support Requests Online

http://support.vmware.com/selfsupport/

Knowledge base of troubleshooting information by product http://www.vmware.com/kb VMware Fusion Discussion Forums http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/desktop/fusion

[alex1256]

Hi Michael,

you won't find the files (Windows XP Professional-000001.vmdk, etc.) using spotlight. You have to go into your "virtual machines" folder on your mac and right-click the "VMware Fusion Technical Support's suggestion works since I may have a similar problem as yours.

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

Have a look at:

[GBsGONE]

WoodyZ, Thank you for your expertise. It appears that I have "Orphaned Chained Snapshots" existing in the Virtual machine Package.

I will go the cloning route and let you know what happens....

[GBsGONE9]

WoodyZ; If my vm is on a mac, and there is no vCenter Converter for the mac (Win and Linux only),

does this make sense? 1. Copy vm file from mac to peripheral HD... 2. Remove vmWare fusion from

the mac, and all files.... 3. Download vCenter Converter for Windows to a 2nd computer with WinXP OS ... 4. Do the

conversion/clone onto a second vm file on the peripheral HD using vCenter Converter on the Windows computer....

5. Reload vmWare fusion on the originalmac 6. Reload Fusion on the mac and restore the converted

vm from the peripheral HD to the mac.

[GBsGONE]

The problem was solved by copying the vm files to a external hard drive, then deleting the vm from my mac.

I downloaded vmware vcenter converter into the vm (the .exe version, not the linux version; there is no mac version)

on the external HD with vmware fusion selecting to run the

vm on the external HD. Converter then was very easy to clone a new copy of the vm onto my mac at the appropriate

size of 50GB instead of the 121 GB that took up way too much space. WoodyZ YOU ARE THE MAN! THANK YOU!