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iBruce
Contributor
Contributor

How to reclaim the unused space on VMDK file without ESXi?

I use VMware Station Pro,  The VMDK file was 1.3T and the space usage is less than 400G.

How to reclaim the unused space on the VMDK file without ESXi etc? Because I didn't install ESXi etc.

All I want to do is reclaim the space. The steps I searched were all about ESXi, which was painful for me.

 

Thanks.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

As your post needs moving to the area for Workstation Pro, I have reported it to the volunteer moderators.

 


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iBruce
Contributor
Contributor

Okay Thanks, Looking forward to any response.

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RDPetruska
Leadership
Leadership

Unclear to what you're saying here.  Is the VM's folder on your host's hard disk taking up 1.3TB of space while the VM's disk size is 400 GB?  Or is it that you defined the max disk size to be 1.3TB and you now want to decrease that maximum size of the disk?

In either case, the solution is to use the vmware-vdiskmanager command-line utility included with Workstation - no need for ESXi at all... not sure what you've been searching.  Some of the commands are available within Workstation - settings - hard disk - utilities.  If you want to decrease the size, though, the easiest way is to use the VMware vCenter Converter Standalone and clone the VM into a brand new VM with a smaller hard disk.

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iBruce
Contributor
Contributor

Hi @RDPetruska , I mean the file size of the vmdk file is 1.3T, not the folder, and the data usage of VMDK is less than 400G. 

So, I want to decrease the size of vmdk. I tried to compact the size from VMware but seems only free little size. 

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stevecs
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Depending on what OS you have, the steps I use for windows guests under workstation is to:

- remove any old snapshots that you do not need.

- boot the guest os

- apply any patches/updates/etc if needed and reboot before starting any consolidating

- use the windows disk cleanup tool

- use bleachbit (to clean up any other items I don't want)

- defrag the drive (I use ultra defrag)

- shut down the guest

- then with vmware workstation go to manage -> clean up disks

- when done then go edit the disk and click on defragment.

 

I only do this after a while of use (say several months and I use guests 24x7 as a 'work desktop' so get a lot of file use)  and also use this time to remove all old snapshots and start 'fresh' again.  it cleans up a decent chunk of host space.    

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