Disks with parents cannot be expanded

[LamyaImam]

Spoiler

Hello all! I'm new here. 

So, I was trying to expand my VM's hard disk and this error popped up: "Disks that belong to virtual machines with snapshots cannot be expanded. To expand this disk, first remove snapshots."

I checked and there were no snapshots in the manage snapshot section. But I still clicked on delete all and after that this error is showing: "Disks with parents cannot be expanded." I did try consolidating the disk and yet no improvement. What do i do? Can anyone please help?

[mbufkin · Accepted solution]

Under the Files tab for the VM do you see a .vmsd file? It's possible it will have to be deleted manually. Always have a backup before trying procedures like this. Once deleted take a snapshot and then delete the snapshot normally. You may have to shutdown the VM first. I hope this helps.

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

It sometimes happens that the .vmsd file loses track of the snapshots. This is usually the case if a snapshot removal doe not succeed.

Assuming that you have sufficient free disk space on the datastore - especially if the VM's virtual disk is "Thin" provisioned - and that no other process (e.g. an unsuccessful backup) still locks one of the VM's files, it should work to create another snapshot, followed by "Delete All".

André

[LamyaImam]

Thank you so much @mbufkin for your guidance. It worked!

[LamyaImam]

Thank you @a_p_ for explaining the issue.