How to shrink my vware files

[fyc3010]

I have vmware 7 workstation and i notice with both of my virtual os are starting to take up a lot of space even though i am not adding software to it. The newest one i put on i installed some big file and them removed the software but the size never went down and i need the space. Can someone help me?

[nava_thulasi39]

Hi,

You might created Disk as Thick Disk choosing Allocate all Disk space now while creating the VM.

And do you have any snapshot on the VM?

[a_p_]

Welcome to the Community,

which guest OS do you have and how did you configure the virtual disk (one large .vmdk file or multiple 2GB sparse files). In case of a Windows guest OS you shrink the virtual disk from the VMware Tools box (in the system tray). Depending on the virtual disk type you will need sufficient free disk space since the process will copy the data to a new .vmdk file.

If shrinking is grayed out, your VM might have snapshots which first need to be consolidated.

André

[fyc3010]

Well one is redhat Linux but the one I just put on is win 7 pro. I tried putting a software

On it but deleted it and the files to put a smaller version on there but the funny

Part is that the size won't shrink back down to the 5gb it started at. In fact it's 12gb

On there for no reason. I checked in the shot manager but I didn't see any shots in there

[a_p_]

That's the expected behavior. It basically the same with e.g. databases. They can easily grow in size, but to reduce the size you need to run the shrink process.

André

[fyc3010]

i do not see a vmware tool box. Can you walk me through how to shrink this? thanks in advanced

[a_p_]

For Windows you can open the VMware Tools window from either the context menu when you right click the VMware Tools icon in the system tray or by selecting it in Start -> Settings -> Control Panel. In this window you will find the "Shrink" tab.

André

[fyc3010]

Ok i found it. Its saying i dont have enough space to do it. How much space do i need?

[a_p_]

As I mentioned above, it depends on the VM's virtual disk format. Do you have one large .vmdk file or multiple 2GB sparse files? If the former, VMware Workstation may check for free disk space of approximately the size of the virtual disk. In case of the 2GB split .vmdk files you should be fine with a few GBs.

André