Trouble shrinking a Hard Drive

[plondry]

I created an Windows VMWare Image that has a SCSI Hard Drive that's around 40GB. The image at this point is 58 GB and it won't allow me to Shrink it using the VM Tools. I've made sure the HD is independent and persistent, it's also not pre-allocated so it grows as I use more space, which I think is the reason it's 58GB when the drive is only 40GB (adding and deleting files seems to grow the image). It's not a linked clone and there are no snapshots, but in the Tools it says that the Shrinking is disabled. I need to do something with this image because 58GB is just way too big. I'm only using about 10 GB of the Hard Drive on the image.

When I start up the image, I do get a message warning me that the Windows XP does not support the BusLogic SCSI adapter that VMWare Workstation currently uses for it's virtual SCSI devices. I have however installed the new driver for the SCSI controller from http://vmware.com/info?id=43

When I'm in the client and open up VMWare Tools, the Shrink tabs says "Shrink disk is disabled for this virtual machine. Shrinking is disabled for linked clones, parents of linked clones, pre-allocated disks, snapshots and other factors. For more information, see the documentation for your VMWare product"

I'm using VMWare Workstation 6.5, the documentation says the Shrink tab will tell me why I'm not able to shrink the disk.

So I guess my question is: What are other factors?

Thanks

[AWo]

Welcome to the forums!

I created an Windows VMWare Image that has a SCSI Hard Drive that's around 40GB. The image at this point is 58 GB and it won't allow me to Shrink it using the VM Tools.

Please post the .vmx file of the guest and a screenshot of the directory of the guest (where all the files are).

I've made sure the HD is independent and persistent, it's also not pre-allocated so it grows as I use more space, which I think is the reason it's 58GB when the drive is only 40GB (adding and deleting files seems to grow the image).

No, it should not be larger. It should grow from a smaller size to the 40 GB limit.

When I start up the image, I do get a message warning me that the Windows XP does not support the BusLogic SCSI adapter that VMWare Workstation currently uses for it's virtual SCSI devices. I have however installed the new driver for the SCSI controller from http://vmware.com/info?id=43

That's O.K., the message only tell you that XP doesn't carry the driver and you have to provide it yourself.

AWo
VCP / VMware vEXPERT 2009

=Due to lack of employees, human beings work here. - Treat them carefully, they are rare.=

[plondry]

Thanks for the quick reply AWo

Attached is an 2 images of the directory and the .vmx file, now that I'm looking at it, it does seem like a lot of files, I've created images before and didn't have this many files

[AWo]

It looks like you have an active snapshots of your disk. In this case defragmentation is forbidden (for good reasons).

You can recognize that because you base file (the virtual disk) is "DriveC_SCSI.vmdk" but there are several "DriveC_SCSI-nnnnn" files. That would aso explain why the disk seems to be larger than what you have assigned.

AWo
VCP / VMware vEXPERT 2009

=Due to lack of employees, human beings work here. - Treat them carefully, they are rare.=

[plondry]

I did create some snapshots in the past and when I deleted the snapshots I think I had some issues with my Host Hard Drive space (Cause an error msg to appear). I'm assuming it didn't actually clean up the Snapshot files. In the Snapshot Manager it doesn't display any snapshots, is there a way to clean up the mess I created.

Thanks

[AWo · Accepted solution]

I only know this way: create a full clone of your guest. That creates a clone with one disk file at the actual state. That is snapshot-free then. Remove the old guest when the clone works.

BTW, I guess the clone needs no defragmentation after creating it.

Use "VM > Clone".

AWo
VCP / VMware vEXPERT 2009

=Due to lack of employees, human beings work here. - Treat them carefully, they are rare.=

[Scissor]

You could try to take a new snapshot of your Guest, and then remove the new snapshot. VMware may clean up after itself. If that doesn't work then use AWo's suggestion and make a full clone.

[plondry]

The clone worked, my image is now down to 10GB, and I can now use the Shrink in VMTools. Thanks AWo and Scissor for your help, I really appreciate it.