Resize virtual disk space

[stasra]

Used VMWare Converter to import Windows XP image into Fusion. VMware image occupies about 90GB even though used space is approximately 26GB. Can I resize to use only 26GB of disk space and then grow its size automatically as needed? How can that be accomplished without damaging virtual disk image?

Host OS: Mac 10.5.2

Guest OS: Windows XP SP2

VMware Fusion 1.1

[admin]

You want to shrink the disk.

: How To Shrink

Alternately, if you had told Converter to output a different virtual disk size, it would have done a file-by-file copy instead of block-by-block. This would have the side effect of removing unused space. However, it's still useful to know how to shrink a disk.

[stasra]

I do no have VMware-three-boxes logo ( ) in the taskbar. What is alternative way to launch toolbox?

[WoodyZ]

I do no have VMware-three-boxes logo ( ) in the taskbar. What is alternative way to launch toolbox?

Thur Control Panel and if you do not have VMware Tools applet in Control Panel then you may not have installed VMware Tools.

VMware Fusion menu bar > Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools...

[stasra]

If I am able to successfully shrink its size, will it be able to grow as needed in the future? In other words, where does one configure maximum allocated disk space to any given virtual machine?

[RDPetruska]

It is defined when you create (or expand) your virtual disk, if you are using a growable (sparse) disk type. You define the maximum size the virtual disk can become (and the guest sees the virtual disk as that size).

[stasra]

How do you tell if using sparse disk space? How do you expand disk size? Is it even recommended to shrink disk size occupied by free space?

[Afflictedd2]

Hi everyone,

I have been trying to resize my CentOS 5.2 virtual machine now for a GOOD while.. and I can't manage to resize the partition. (Resizing the virutal machine Hard Disk works)

I have followed the following instructions without any luck

that ol' gparted-livecd always gives me the same problem of not recognizing the filesystem format, thus leaving me unable to resize my CentOS installation.. Can someone

help me with this pleassseee 😎 (I'm desperate)

Ed.

[WoodyZ]

I have been trying to resize my CentOS 5.2 virtual machine now for a GOOD while.. and I can't manage to resize the partition. (Resizing the virutal machine Hard Disk works)

Once you've expanded the size of the Virtual Hard Drive this is then no longer a Fusion issue per-se in that the remaining steps are no different then if this was as physical machine and as such one needs to follow the documentation for the product in question.

Below are links to the relevant documentation and assuming you are using LVM you will need to get up to speed on it in order to make use of the additional space available either by having expand the size of the Virtual Machine's Virtual Hard Disk Drive or adding additional Virtual Hard Disk Drives to the Virtual Machine.

CentOS-5 Documentation

While one should read all the documentation in general you should specifically read chapers 6 and 9 in the Deployment Guide.

Also there is a wealth of information in the LVM Administrator's Guide.