Fusion .vmdk file over 300GB

[Tiby]

Hello,

I have tried to find an answer to this so please forgive me if it has already been covered.

I am running Vmware Fusion 11.1.0 on Mac OS 10.13.6 with Windows 10 as the guest OS.

My VM is called "Boot Camp". I have 5 files:

Boot Camp.vmdk  (255.96GB)

Boot Camp-000001.vmdk (10.36GB)

Boot Camp-000002.vmdk (305.94GB)

Boot Camp-000003.vmdk (4.08GB)

Boot Camp-000004.vmdk (1.18GB)

Boot Camp-000005.vmdk (4.55GB)

Settings shows my Hard Disk to be 4.2 GB and within Windows it says I have 299GB.

However the whole VM package is now 610.06GB.

Is there any way to reduce the size? It is filling up my Mac hard drive.

Thank you in advance.

[RDPetruska]

Turn off AutoProtect (number one, it is frustrating to have it automatically creating snapshots and using up disk space without warning the user; number two, it makes no sense to have snapshots of a BootCamp partition virtual machine).  Then, remove the snapshots to merge all changes back into the main virtual disk.

[Tiby]

Thanks for your reply. I have checked and Autoprotect was off. There are no snapshots. In Settings>Hard Disk it shows Boot Camp-000005.vmdk as the File Name. I'm not sure if that means there are no snapshots for that file but maybe there are in 000002? Sorry if I have got that wrong.

For clarity, this was originally a Boot Camp partition which was migrated but I have not changed the name. It is no longer a Boot Camp partition.

[a_p_]

Please run the following commands from within the VM's folder/package:

dd count=1536 if="Boot Camp.vmdk" of="Metadata0.bin" bs=1

dd count=1536 if="Boot Camp-000001.vmdk" of="Metadata1.bin" bs=1

dd count=1536 if="Boot Camp-000002.vmdk" of="Metadata2.bin" bs=1

dd count=1536 if="Boot Camp-000003.vmdk" of="Metadata3.bin" bs=1

dd count=1536 if="Boot Camp-000004.vmdk" of="Metadata4.bin" bs=1

dd count=1536 if="Boot Camp-000005.vmdk" of="Metadata5.bin" bs=1

ls -l > filelist.txt

Then compress/zip the .bin files along with the filelist.txt, and the VM's .vmsd file, and attach the .zip archive to a reply post.

Btw. how much free disk space do you currently have on the MAC's disk?

André

[nancyz]

Hi Tiby ,

How did you create this VM, run Boot Camp as a VM or import the Boot Camp volume?

[Tiby]

Hi nancyz,

I'm pretty sure it was import the Boot Camp volume, but it was many years ago.

[Tiby]

Hi Andre,

I'm sorry to be limited in my knowledge, but could you let me know how I run that from within the folder/package?

[Tiby]

Hi Andre,

I worked it out. Thanks. The archive is attached.

I have 788 GB fee on the Mac.

Thanks again, Tiby

[wila]

Hi,

It looks like you have 5 open snapshots. The names of those vmdk files do hint very strongly at that.

It also seems like your .vmsd file got wiped out somehow.

The .vmsd file is what is used to display the snapshot chain.

Normally the trick to consolidate would be "take another snapshot and select "Delete All", at least that's what do it in VMware vSphere.

But VMware Fusion does not have a "Delete All" option for consolidating all snapshots and I'm not sure that just deleting that one new snapshot will take care of it.

However as you are using an imported bootcamp VM, it might be better to go through an entirely different approach.

The bootcamp partition layout is as in this thread:

Can't expand imported bootcamp windows 10 disk

While you can expand that and manually commit all the snapshots, it would still be a bit of work to get there.

It is probably much easier to use VMware vCenter Converter and clone your VM using that tool.

--

Wil

[Tiby]

Thanks Wil,

unfortunately my VM is crashing every 5 minutes due to synchronizing issue with the large 000002 file. I am trying to back up, which I have to do manually between crashes. This is really worrying.

[wila]

Hi,

Ok, in that case you can (should) make a backup of the whole VM bundle manually to an external disk with the VM shut down.

A plain copy in Finder is fine. Do not depend on Time Machine to save you as that is a rather risky gamble.

Then wait for André to analyze your .bin files and follow his recommendations on manually repairing and/or consolidating the vmdk files.

You are in the best hands for helping with data recovery with him.

--

Wil

[Tiby]

Thank you very much!

[a_p_]

It's actually a matter of consolidating the snapshots, as already mentioned by Wil.

What you may try - after backing up the files - is to follow Option 2, or 3 from https://kb.vmware.com/kb/1020000​. Option 3 has the advantage, that a new .vmdk file will be created, i.e. the current .vmdk files won't get modified.

One thing to point out, is that the virtual disk's provisioned size is ~1.8TB. Do you really need this, or is it simply the result of the conversion from the "real" Boot Camp machine?

If you don't want/need that size, it might be worth using the vSphere Converter, and reduce the provisioned size.

If you are unsure about the commands in Option 3, please don't hesitate to ask.

André

[Tiby]

Thank you everyone for your help.

I tried all of the suggestions you offered, and am very appreciative for your assistance. Sadly, my VM was too corrupted and I had to create a new one and manually copy my files out of the corrupted VM and into the new one, re-installing software as I went. There were quite a few sleepless nights as in some cases I had to manually copy each file rather than folders, which means the corruption was no doubt in that area.

My new VM seems to be working okay with the files copies over, and I've yet to find anything permanently lost, but am hoping if there is anything it is only minor.

Thank you all again for your fast and helpful advice.