Can I create a new VMDK and then copy the contents of another VMDK to it?

[Karsyn]

I'm using Ubuntu 23.04 with VMware Workstation Pro 17. My current VMDK, which has Windows 10 (x64) on it, has a maximum size of 100 GB. I want to keep the contents of this VMDK (the OS itself and all the programs and files on it) and copy them to a new VMDK that has a maximum size of 50 GB. Is this possible? If so, how do I do it?

[Technogeezer]

How would you do that on a physical machine? (It's no different on a virtual machine).

[a_p_]

VMware Converter is one supported option, but in case you are using the sparse .vmdk file format, it may also be an option to shrink the 100GB partition from within the guest OS so that the additional space will not be further used.

André

[Karsyn]

I want to reduce the Maximum size of the VMDK from 100 GB to 50GB.

As of now, I don't think that there's a way to do that (?)

[a_p_]

What the .vmdk file's file format?
How do the partitions look like from within Windows?

André

[Karsyn]

>What the .vmdk file's file format?

NTFS

>How do the partitions look like from within Windows?

[a_p_]

A .vmdk file format can be one of the following:

0 : single growable virtual disk
1 : growable virtual disk split into multiple files
2 : preallocated virtual disk
3 : preallocated virtual disk split into multiple files
4 : preallocated ESX-type virtual disk

André

[Karsyn]

My vmdk is a preallocated virtual disk

[a_p_]

For a preallocated virtual disk file it may work to cut off the file, and do some fixes after that.
Needless to say, it's completely unsupported, so make sure that you have a backup!

To start with, please download the Windows version of https://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/, run gdisk64.exe -l 0: from an elevated command prompt, and post the commands output (as text please!).
In addition to this, attach a copy of the .vmdk descriptor file (a small text file) to your next reply.

André

[Karsyn]

Thanks but I resolved my issue by creating a new 60 GB preallocated VMDK and using disk cloning software to clone data to it from my 100 GB VMDK. I followed this guide: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3168777/drive-cloning-windows-how-to.html