How to expand disk space on an OS X 10.13 VM?

mlevin77 · ‎12-31-2020

I created a VM with OS X 10.13. The VMBundle takes up 42.63 GB on my host's physical disk. The HD inside the VM says my (virtual) disk capacity is 42 GB. Fine, but 34 GB is already used up (must be the OS and some stuff brew installed) so I need more room. I've followed the instructions online, shutting down the machine and going to Settings in VMWare and the Hard Disk panel, dragging the Disk size to 81 GB. It worked, but nothing changed - it still thinks it only has 42GB. The instructions say to next re-partition the disk from inside the VM OS, but I don't see how - Disk Utility won't let you repartition the disk you're booted from (as far as I know). How do I actually let the VM OS use the additional 40 GB I'm trying to give it?

wila · ‎12-31-2020

Hi,

You need to use Disk Utility in the macOS VM to actually use that new space.

See also here for some steps:
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Discussions/Mismatch-in-hard-drive-sizes/m-p/1388586

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva

mlevin77 · ‎01-01-2021

Hmm so that link says to get rid of the "Free partition", and I tried it, but I see the attached:

wila · ‎01-01-2021

That's a confusing error.

Are you getting the other screenshots like I wrote in that other thread?

Can you click into free space to select it and does the "-" button become available?
--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva

mlevin77 · ‎01-01-2021

Yep. Everything else looks like those screenshots I hit "-" to get rid of the free space partition, and that I see that error.

wila · ‎01-01-2021

Hi,

Strange.

The error mentioned "it may be a temporary issue, try again".
Did you try again? Did the error come up once more? Even after restarting Disk Utility?
If so then I probably would first try to reboot and go through the steps again.

It _should_ just work. If not then I suppose we can try from the command line, but using Disk Utility is certainly easiest.

FWIW, this should work on macOS even on the disk that you are running macOS from. macOS has supported live repartitioning of its boot volume for many years and I've used that feature many times too.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva

wila · ‎01-03-2021

BTW, is this VM on the same 4TB external harddisk as your other issue?

Asking as yet another possibility is the external disk misbehaving.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva