Is It Safe To Do A Defrag In A Guest Operating System?

[zonkerman]

Is it safe to do a defrag in a Windows XP or Windows 7 guest operating system? I have a vm that reports it needs to be defragged but I'm not sure if it is safe to do withing the XP vm.

[WoodyZ]

Yes it is safe to do and then afterward you should shrink the disk. BTW I say this with the assumption that it has no snapshots.

[continuum]

do NOT defrag using the tools inside the guest - use this function

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VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay

[zonkerman]

What if I do have a snapshot? If I clone the vm will the clone be defragged and compressed?

[zonkerman]

I ran that defrah you showed. ran for about 5 seconds then said it was successfully done. I logged into the guest vm (windows xp) and checked the windows explorer properties for c:\ then the defrag tool and it still says the drive needs to be defragged. I cloned the vm but did not fix anything. In fact the clone is just as fragmented as the original. At this point I'm going to use the Windows xp defrag tool from within the clone to see if that works.

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

Have a look at "Defragment Virtual Disks" on page 239 and then "Compact a Virtual Disk" on page 240 of the Workstation User's Manual

[continuum]

Next time you should mention who says that the VM needs to be defragged - I assumed that it was a VMware message.

If you mentioned that before my answer would have been different 😉




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay