Expanding the hard drive space on VMWare Fusion

[theapplefreak]

As you can see in the title, I want to know how to expand the hard drive space on VMWare Fusion. I've installed Windows XP Professional on VMWare and I put a hard drive space of 5 GB which was really small and I want to expand it to 10GB. I've read some ways of doing them, but they are long and complicated. Need help
Thanks

[Dmac77]

As you can see in the title, I want to know how to expand the hard drive space on VMWare Fusion. I've installed Windows XP Professional on VMWare and I put a hard drive space of 5 GB which was really small and I want to expand it to 10GB. I've read some ways of doing them, but they are long and complicated. Need help
Thanks

Is this a complete VM install of XP? Or is VMWare looking at a bootcamp partition for XP? I can help you more if I know that Info.

Don

[theapplefreak]

Is this a complete VM install of XP? Or is VMWare looking at a bootcamp partition for XP? I can help you more if I know that Info.

Don

Yes. Its a complete VM install of XP.

[sapporobaby]

As you can see in the title, I want to know how to expand the hard drive space on VMWare Fusion. I've installed Windows XP Professional on VMWare and I put a hard drive space of 5 GB which was really small and I want to expand it to 10GB. I've read some ways of doing them, but they are long and complicated. Need help
Thanks

There is no easy way to do it. It can be done but it is complicated. The fastest and easiest way is to start over from scratch and do a new install. I too have this problem but I am too lazy to go through the hassle.

[Dmac77]

Ok, there should be a button that says preferences on the VMWare window, click that, and then from there, click the HDD button on the left hand side. There should be an option to expand the HDD size in that panel, that's how it is on my iMac at least. If it's not there, I'm at a loss.

EDIT: Just found this article there is a PDF attachment at the bottom of the first post, that might be helpful. http://communities.vmware.com/message/690626#690626

Don

[theapplefreak]

Ok, there should be a button that says preferences on the VMWare window, click that, and then from there, click the HDD button on the left hand side. There should be an option to expand the HDD size in that panel, that's how it is on my iMac at least. If it's not there, I'm at a loss.

Don

There is no preference button on the VMWare Window. But I have clicked on the virtual machine and clicked settings. I looked at the left hand side and went to Hard Drive, but its all grayed out

[Dmac77]

There is no easy way to do it. It can be done but it is complicated. The fastest and easiest way is to start over from scratch and do a new install. I too have this problem but I am too lazy to go through the hassle.

I was able to do it from a pref. pane in VMWare. Why am I always different:confused:

EDIT: To OP, you may be better of just doing a reinstall, and then contact M$FT, and telling them that you put in a new graphics card, they will give you a new key.

Don

[sapporobaby]

I was able to do it from a pref. pane in VMWare. Why am I always different:confused:

EDIT: To OP, you may be better of just doing a reinstall, and then contact M$FT, and telling them that you put in a new graphics card, they will give you a new key.

Don

Your solution will not work as you can not easily change a partition size once it is set. It says this on the VMWare site. Choices are: reinstall or do it the hard way which could lead to more problems and ultimately a reinstall.

[theapplefreak]

There is no easy way to do it. It can be done but it is complicated. The fastest and easiest way is to start over from scratch and do a new install. I too have this problem but I am too lazy to go through the hassle.

Ok. I guess thats the easiest way. By the way. What is the recommended hard drive size for the Virtual Machine?

[mrwizardno2]

There is no easy way to do it. It can be done but it is complicated. The fastest and easiest way is to start over from scratch and do a new install. I too have this problem but I am too lazy to go through the hassle.

Far from it. it's much easier to just expand the disk. Sure, you have to do it via terminal, but it takes almost no time at all.

you'll need to use Terminal to run a command line utility called vmware-vdiskmanager in /Library/Application\ Support/VMWare\ Fusion/. You pass it a switch, a value, and your vmdk file and it does the rest. It can't resize the partition on the disk, but it can make the disk larger.

So if you wanted to make XP.vmdk a 20 gigabyte disk, you'd execute this "./vmware-vdiskmanager -x 20 /path/to/XP.vmdk"

When I get home, I'll make you a guide. You need this in a hurry? Or do you have a couple of hours?

[sapporobaby]

Far from it. it's much easier to just expand the disk. Sure, you have to do it via terminal, but it takes almost no time at all.

you'll need to use Terminal to run a command line utility called vmware-vdiskmanager in /Library/Application\ Support/VMWare\ Fusion/. You pass it a switch, a value, and your vmdk file and it does the rest. It can't resize the partition on the disk, but it can make the disk larger.

So if you wanted to make XP.vmdk a 20 gigabyte disk, you'd execute this "./vmware-vdiskmanager -x 20 /path/to/XP.vmdk"

I read this technique on several VMware sites and they said this is possible but there is an inherent danger. Considering that you are very comfortable with this, you might be able to do this rather easily but not many are comfortable with using the Terminal app.

Can you post that guide here so others can have a look at it?

[mrwizardno2]

I read this technique on several VMware sites and they said this is possible but there is an inherent danger. Considering that you are very comfortable with this, you might be able to do this rather easily but not many are comfortable with using the Terminal app.

the only danger I can think of would be corruption of the disk image. in that case a quick copy would provide you with a cheap, effective backup.

there really is no reason to be afraid of using terminal. it's just a different interface to the same things you interact with via the UI. And if you're logged on as a normal user, and attempt to follow the directions given - there should be no problems. Now, go typing random junk in there, yeah - that might be an issue. but if you are determined, intelligent, and patient - you should have nothing to fear. I'll whip the guide up when I get home after work.

[sapporobaby]

the only danger I can think of would be corruption of the disk image. in that case a quick copy would provide you with a cheap, effective backup.

there really is no reason to be afraid of using terminal. it's just a different interface to the same things you interact with via the UI. And if you're logged on as a normal user, and attempt to follow the directions given - there should be no problems. Now, go typing random junk in there, yeah - that might be an issue. but if you are determined, intelligent, and patient - you should have nothing to fear. I'll whip the guide up when I get home after work.

You are the man. Appreciate it.

[mrwizardno2]

As promised, here is a somewhat simple how-to on how to expand VMWare disk images the non-gui way... and also the gui way for Beta 2.2 users.

First off we need to know where we store our virtual machines, and what the disk image is called. Likely these will be in your Documents folder under Virtual Machines. Here's my path to my example machine. I'll explain the various commands as we go.

/Users/jimmie/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/xpexample1.vmwarevm

These paths are case sensitive. If you're unfamiliar with terminal, here's how to get there.

When you first fire up terminal, you'll see something roughly like this
http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/newterm.png

Terminal should startup in your user directory, /Users/%username%. You can verify this by using the 'pwd' command, From here you want to find the path of the disk image you'll be working on. To list directories and files, the command you type is 'LS' but in lower case. To change to a directory, you use 'cd' and where you want to go. Notice how the prompt changes to show your current directory.

http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/ex1.png


A secret when switching directories or completing various commands is using the tab key. Try typing 'cd Docu' and then hitting tab. It will autocomplete the path for you, and you can just hit enter. This works great for tricky paths that have spaces or special characters. Otherwise, you will have to escape them with a backslash '\'. Alright. Down to business.

I wasn't really sure how to edit disks with snapshots or multiple vmdk's, but from initial observations, it looks like you make the change to your root disk and the utility does all the rest of the work. My example is set to split the disk in 2 gigabyte chunks, so I have quite a few "chunks". So if you have a disk called xpexample.vmdk and several others that are xpexample-sNNN.vmdk, we will target the one without the numbers (N).

http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/vmdks.png

The full path to the file I want to modify is /Documents/Virtual\ Machines.localized/xpexample1.vmwarevm/xpexample1.vmdk.

Now, let's change to the directory containing the disk utility. My particular version of VMWare's utility is installed in /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/

change to the directory by typing 'cd /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/' Remember to use your tab key! If it won't autocomplete, it's likely because of capitalization or an error. Back up a few characters and try again.

Inside this directory, you will see many files, the one we are interested in is the vmware-vdiskmanager.
http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/fusiondir.png

If you run it without any options, it will spell out a help file that shows you exactly how to use it. To run the script, you will use './' This tells bash that you want to run the executable in the current folder.

http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/runnoopts.png

http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/runnoopts2.png
So, we can see in example 4 above to expand a disk, we use the flag/option/switch (whatever you prefer to call it), -x, to expand disk images. You will need to know the full path (remember the one we found earlier?) to your disk image.

Type it just like it looks in the example (remember to execute it with './') and substitute your desired disk size and your path to your disk image. Use your tab key for autocompleting the path!

http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/vdiskmanagersuccess.png


In my case, I now have a 100 gigabyte disk.
http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/results.png

In Fusion beta 2, you should be able to resize partitions by simply using the GUI that's built into the program, if you installed the utility it prompted you to when you installed beta 2. I can't remember what it was called right now, I'll look it up later.

You can either drag the slider, or just type whichever number you wish into the size box and hit enter. The save button will 'un-grey' and let you make the changes:

http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/sizegui.png
http://jimmielightner.com/howtos/fusionresize/sizeguisave.png

Whichever way you can achieve the same results. The GUI way is by far the better choice for those not comfortable in terminal, but the command line offers its own set of advantages with its multitude of options and power.

[Douge]

The terminal window method isn't working for me because I'm apparantly not specifying the diskname or some other argument. Any help?

Macintosh-187:VMware Fusion Doug$ ./vmware-vdiskmanager -x 18GB /Users/Doug/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows Vista.vmwarevm/Windows Vista.vmdk
Diskname or some other argument is missing.
VMware Virtual Disk Manager - build 94249.

[mrwizardno2]

The terminal window method isn't working for me because I'm apparantly not specifying the diskname or some other argument. Any help?

Macintosh-187:VMware Fusion Doug$ ./vmware-vdiskmanager -x 18GB /Users/Doug/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows Vista.vmwarevm/Windows Vista.vmdk
Diskname or some other argument is missing.
VMware Virtual Disk Manager - build 94249.

Doug - are you escaping the spaces in the path?

I see you have /Users/Doug/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows Vista.vmwarevm/Windows Vista.vmdk. When you enter this from the command line, are you actually entering "/Users/Doug/Documents/Virtual\ Machines.localized/Windows\ Vista.vmwarevm/Windows\ Vista.vmdk" or was the lack of escape characters unintentional? It can be picky if you don't have it right.

[Douge]

Doug - are you escaping the spaces in the path?

I see you have /Users/Doug/Documents/Virtual Machines.localized/Windows Vista.vmwarevm/Windows Vista.vmdk. When you enter this from the command line, are you actually entering "/Users/Doug/Documents/Virtual\ Machines.localized/Windows\ Vista.vmwarevm/Windows\ Vista.vmdk" or was the lack of escape characters unintentional? It can be picky if you don't have it right.

Thanks for your help. That was the issue.

Unfortunately, I have run into another problem. Although the disk expansion went smoothly and the new expanded size of the disk appears under the settings menu in fusion, Windows Vista does not recognize the new size. How can I get Windows to "see" the additional space? Thanks in advance.

[mrwizardno2]

Thanks for your help. That was the issue.

Unfortunately, I have run into another problem. Although the disk expansion went smoothly and the new expanded size of the disk appears under the settings menu in fusion, Windows Vista does not recognize the new size. How can I get Windows to "see" the additional space? Thanks in advance.

Great to hear it was something simple. As for extending the partition, you will need to open the Disk Management component inside of the Computer management snapin.

Since I don't have Vista installed, I can't easily create a how-to... but I know the approximate steps. Follow this guide here http://www.petri.co.il/extend-disk-partition-vista-windows-server-2008.htm

If you have any problems let me know and I'll help out if I can!

[steveza]

As promised, here is a somewhat simple how-to on how to expand VMWare disk images the non-gui way... and also the gui way for Beta 2.2 users.Nice job on the guide. I'm sure that going to help a load of people out of a tight squeeze.

[Douge]

Great to hear it was something simple. As for extending the partition, you will need to open the Disk Management component inside of the Computer management snapin.

Since I don't have Vista installed, I can't easily create a how-to... but I know the approximate steps. Follow this guide here http://www.petri.co.il/extend-disk-partition-vista-windows-server-2008.htm

If you have any problems let me know and I'll help out if I can!

Ah, perfect! It worked exactly as planned. Thanks so much for your help. I might be posting again to get your help on other things as well!

[Majikk]

Ahhhhhh! Thank you for the instructions it worked perfectly to go from 40GB to 60GB. I am a command line moron and your instructions were perfect.