Can I shrink Workstation NVMe?

[GnVm]

Hi,

It was required to expand NVMe size in Workstation. That's why I expanded.

Now it is not needed. That's why I used Compact but it didn't work for which I did it.

Pls let me know, can I shrink it? If yes, how to shrink it?

With Regards

GnVm

[wila]

Hi,

Shrinking it? That depends on what exactly you mean by shrinking.

Can you reduce the size of the VM's virtual disk? No, you cannot without using a product such as VMware Converter to clone the VM.

Can you reclaim the unused areas of the disk? Yes you can, but it is different depending on the guest OS and partition type used. Note that your virtual disk partition must be as large as possible. Unpartitioned disk space cannot be reclaimed.

On the "how-to reclaim unused disk space"? question.

See my article here:

https://wiki.vi-toolkit.com/index.php?title=Shrink_guest_on_hosted_platform

which should cover most questions and if it does not, just ask.

--
Wil

[btmp]

My first guess would be that you have at least one snapshot. I think trying to compact a VM with even one snapshot usually only messes with the last .vmdk

If the stability of the VM isn't in question and you don't need to be able to revert any snapshots you can manage and delete them all at once (which may take some time in itself depending on the number of snapshots and differences in file sizes between each) leaving the VM in its current (most recent) state. After that point you should be able to actually compact it and regain the now unused space in the latest state.

All the above is only true IF you have not created the VM Disk as pre-allocated and there may be other caveats as well that simply aren't popping into my head atm so if it's an important VM make sure you have a backup *just in case* something goes wrong while doing all that.