unable to enlarge virtual disk

[mbrms]

I am using Fusion 5.0.2 and I have a problem to enlarge the virtual disk of my Win 7 image.

In advance: I am using a German version so maybe the menu descriptions do not met exactly the English expressions.

Ok, first I tried to push the slider to the right. But this was not possible because there were several snapshots. So I deleted all snapshots.

Now there is no snapshot but the dialog shows a yellow triangle with an exclamation mark and a label that the virtual disk is missing ("Die virtuelle Festplatte fehlt").

Has anybody an advice?

Thank you in advance!

Markus

[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.

[mbrms]

you will find the file attached

[rite]

From you log, I found vmdks(Virtuelle Festplatte-00000x.vmdk) belongs to snapshots are still in your VM bundle(Win 7 x32 Enterprise.vmwarevm). Try following:

1. Delete 'Virtuelle Festplatte-000001.vmdk', 'Virtuelle Festplatte-000002.vmdk' and 'Virtuelle Festplatte-000003.vmdk';

2. Open 'Win 7 x32 Enterprise.vmx' with editor, then change

scsi0:0.fileName = "Virtuelle Festplatte-000003.vmdk" To scsi0:0.fileName = "Virtuelle Festplatte.vmdk"

After this, I think your VM could be powered on normally.

[mbrms]

Thank you very much. But however it is the wrong image. Sorry, I did not know the content within the file and so sorry that you had to investigate several images. But now I studied it a little bit so that I am able to be more detailled.

The problem is concerning the image "Win 7 x64 Entwicklung". And even if the system in the dialog writes that the virtual disk is missing the image can be started!

I now checked the VMX file and there should be the disk file "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk". In the content of "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmwarevm" I can find "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate-s001.vmdk" and so on (002, 003 ...) but not "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk". How can I fix this?

Attached you will find

#1 the screen of the dialog, where I cannot enlarge the disk and where the is written that the file is missing,

#2 a screen of the configuration file

#3 a screen of the content of "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmwarevm"

Thank you again.

[a_p_]

According to the support file the .vmdk file exists and seems to be ok!?

@rite: Your recommendation to delete .vmdk files would result in data loss! Please be very careful with such recommendations.

André

[WoodyZ]

André Pett wrote: According to the support file the .vmdk file exists and seems to be ok!?

After a cursory review of the support bundle it looks as though the "/Virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmwarevm" Virtual Machine was pointing to the "/Virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmwarevm/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk" virtual hard disk and during the snapshot cleanup process it did not write the fully qualified pathname to the "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk" in "/Virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmwarevm" for the "scsi0:0.fileName" option in the  "/virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmwarevm/Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmx" configuration file.

I gleaned this from reviewing the "/Users/broy/Library/Logs/VMware Fusion/vmware-vmfusion.log" and /virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmwarevm/vmware*.log files

So if what I gleaned is correct then the "scsi0:0.fileName" option in the "/virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmwarevm/Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmx" configuration file should be the following:

scsi0:0.fileName = "/virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmwarevm/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk"

not

scsi0:0.fileName = "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk"

So André, if you'd check that out I'd appreciate it.

[a_p_]

You are right. After reviewing the files again the whole setup looks like this is kind of "hand made". The Enterprise .vmx file points to the Ultimate VM (fileSearchPath) , but the Ultimate VM's folder also contains a .vmx file which is quite old (that's the one I mistakenly looked at earlier). I'd recommend to do some manual cleanup here and move all the VM's files into a single folder (package) to avoid confusion and possible issues in the future!?

André

[WoodyZ]

André, I agree whenever possible to keep all of the files in the same Folder/Package!   BTW The line I saw in the vmware-vmfusion.log file that was the clue was, "Consolidating from '/Virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmwarevm/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate-000012.vmdk' to '/Virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmwarevm/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk'".

[mbrms]

Thank you all. I will try this today or tomorrow. Of course I will send you a feedback.

[mbrms]

Ok, I tried to consolidate the HDD files into one folder but it does not work. Because I made it via trial and error I have to adjust anything else?

Here the steps I did:

#1

I copied all VMDK files from "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmwarevm" to "Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmwarevm"

#2

I renamed these files from "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk" to "Virtuelle HDD C.vmdk" and from "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate-s001.vmdk" to "Virtuelle HDD C-s001.vmdk" and so on for all other "Windows 7 x64 Ultimate-s... .vmdk".

#3

I edited the VMX file in "Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmwarevm" as follows:

changed line:

scsi0:0.fileName = "Virtuelle HDD C.vmdk"

deleted line:

fileSearchPath = "/virtuelle Systeme/1_active systems/Win 7 x64 Entwicklung/Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmwarevm;."

Thereafter I trie to start the image from the VMWare menu and I got the attached error message that the file "Virtuelle HDD C.vmdk" could not be found. Also attached you will find a screenshot of the content of "Win7 x64 Entwicklung.vmwarevm" and the configuration file.

Is there anything else I have to adjust? Or did I any mistake?

[a_p_]

Renameing a virtual disk should always be done using the "vmware-vdiskmanager" command line utility. Anyway, did you also edit the descriptor .vmdk file ("Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.vmdk"/"Virtuelle HDD C.vmdk") and update the s00x.vmdk file names?

André

[mbrms]

bull's eye ... now it works 😉

Can I now assign a fix larger size via the dialog you will find attached?

Can I also deactivate the checkbox "In Dateien mit je 2 GB unterteilen" (free English translation: "divide into files with 2 GB") without data loss?

Thank you very much all of you!

[a_p_]

Can I now assign a fix larger size via the dialog you will find attached?

If the wizard allows you to resize (grow) the virtual disk size, you should be able to do this.

Can  I also deactivate the checkbox "In Dateien mit je 2 GB unterteilen" without data  loss?

Not sure if this is possible for an existing virtual disk. Anyway, I would not recommend you do this. The split format makes it easier and faster to e.g. grow a virtual disk. With a monolithic format (a single .vmdk file) the whole file needs to be copied in order to resize it, whereas with the split format only  the required slices have to be added.

(free English translation: "divide into files with 2 GB")

Übersetzungen werden meist überbewertet.

André

[mbrms]

everything works fine now. Thank you!