I’m trying to expand my C drive from 100g to 150g. I expanded my vm in the setting. When I go to disk management I have my C drive then a recovery drive then my 50 gig unallocated. I cannot increase my C drive with the recovery partition to the right of my C drive. Is there any way to fix this without needing to redo my VM or using 3rd party software? Thanks.
VM Workstation PRO
Windows 10 PRO
Delete the partition? Google results suggest it is possible to do so.
You boot the VM using a GParted ISO and you'll be able to move the recovery partition to the end so that the free space will then be next to the the C drive partition thereby allowing you to "Expand volume" in Windows VM later.
Use your preferred search engine to look for GParted. It is fairly easy to use to move partitions.
Back up your VM first BEFORE moving the partition if you want to be cautious.
In the VM, right-click Start button, choose Run and run diskpart. In diskpart type the following commands:
list disk
(shows the list of disks, you should have only one, numbered 0)
sel disk 0
list par
(you will get the list of partitions, typically the recovery partition will be number 4; if it's not change the number in next command)
sel par 4
del par override
And that's it – you removed the recovery partition, and can close the console window. You can now extend your partition through Disk Management. The recovery partition will be recreated when the next Windows feature update installs.
I might be late to this conversation, but I managed to get this by...
1. Removing the vmdk from the Windows VM.
2. Install the vmdk in an Ubuntu VM with GParted.
3. Perform all the desired partitioning tasks.
4. Remove vmdk from Ubuntu and put it back to the Windows VM.
There's a way to move the recovery partition in Windows 10 and 11 (and probably Windows Server as well) that does not involve any other tools other than those provided by Microsoft and does not require taking the VM offline.
See https://thedxt.ca/2023/06/moving-windows-recovery-partition-correctly/