Clean up a Windows virtual machine on Linux host

[shmu26]

So I was deleting snapshots, and the manager said it can't finish everything because I need to run a cleanup job on my virtual disk. The question is how, since it is a Linux host.

I have an apparently unnecessary file called Win10-disk1-preallocated-000003.vmdk. It is 17 gb. This is not my actual hard disk file, which is called Win10-disk1-preallocated-flat.vmdk. It is 53 gb, and is monolithic.

So my question is how to get rid of this 17 gb extraneous file, without borking the VM.

VMWare Workstation Pro 15.0.2 build-10952284

Ubuntu 18.10 x64

[sjesse]

Are you sure you don't need it. The 0000003.vmdk files are generally created from a snapshot, do you have a snapshot on your windows 10 virtual machine?

[shmu26]

I deleted all snapshots, but it got left behind. The snapshot manager complained that it could not finish cleaning up files.

[a_p_]

Not sure what exactly happened in your case.

Anyway, what I would do, is to check the VM's vmware.log file to see whether "Win10-disk1-preallocated-000003.vmdk" shows up after a clean start of the VM. If it does not show up, shut down the VM, move the file to a temporary location, and power on the VM again. If it works, then it should be save to delete the file.

André

PS: Consider to keep a backup of the file for some time.

[shmu26]

It's there in the log after a fresh start.

So let me put this question differently: I am ready to sacrifice the changes in the VM and go back to the pre-snapshot state. How to make it forget  Win10-disk1-preallocated-000003.vmdk so I can just delete it, and move on? Is this a plan, or a mistake?

[shmu26 · Accepted solution]

Issue solved.

I ran Windows disk cleanup tool within the guest. Then I made a new snapshot, and deleted it. The deletion process took a very long time, and got rid of the problem file as well.