Content

• Steps
• Advice
• Warning

VMware is a cloud solution that allows you to run multiple virtual machines on one computer. As such, VMware acts as an interface between the hardware and many different operating systems. If you run out of disk space on the virtual machine, you will see a message every time you turn on your computer and may even notice that the computer is slowing down in speed and performance. To increase drive space, simply adjust the drive settings and allocate more space for the drive. Before you do any of these, make sure that you have deleted the snapshot (copy of the disk file) and power off the virtual machine.

Steps

Method 1 of 2: Extend the drive in VMware's setup

1. 

   Make sure that some prerequisites have been met. To increase disk space in VMware, you must make sure that the virtual machine is powered off and there are no snapshots. To determine if the virtual machine has a snapshot, see the "Information" section under the "Summary" tab.

2. 

   
   
   Go to "Settings". Let's do this in VMware.

3. 

   Select the hard drive you want to expand. You will see this hard drive under the "Hardware" column.

4. 

   
   
   Drive expansion. On the right side of the window under "Disk Provisioning", set the new "Provisioned Size" size for the drive. In some skins, you will see a drop-down menu called "Utilities". Please select "Expand" here. Usually drives are between 30 and 40 GB, so try changing the size to 45 to 55 GB.

5. 

   
   
   Click "OK". This is the step to setting new maximum capacity for the virtual drive.

6. 

   Rescan the drive. After you have enlarged the drive space, you must take a few extra steps in the operating system.To rescan the drive, go to "Disk Management" and select "Rescan Disks".

7. 

   Change the size of the operating system installation drive. Now that you expand and rescan the drive, you will see the newly created "Unallocated Space" section. You must now assign this space to the drive where the operating system is installed. To do this, right-click on the unused space and select "Expand Volume". This is the step of displaying a simple program that will assist you in deciding what to do with this newly created space. Finally, assign it to the virtual drive. advertisement

Method 2 of 2: Extend the drive in Workstation, Player, ACE Manager, Server, or GSX

1. 

   Open Command Prompt. If you are using VMware Workstation, Player, ACE Manager, Server or GSX software, do it this way. You can do this by clicking "Start" then typing "cmd" without the quotes in the search bar. Then choose "Run".

2. 

   Go to the software installation directory.
   1. If using Workstation, type: Program Files VMware VMware Workstation under Windows or : / usr / sbin under Linux.
   2. If using Player and ACE Manager, type: Program Files VMware VMware Player under Windows or / usr / sbin under Linux.
   3. If using Server, type: Program Files VMware VMware Server under Windows or / usr / bin under Linux.
   4. If using GSX, type: Program Files VMware VMware GSX Server under Windows or / usr / bin under Linux.

3. 

   Type the following line of code:vmware-vdiskmanager -x 100Gb vm.vmdk and press “Enter”. This is the step to change the capacity of the current drive.
   1. Replace "vm.vmdk" with the absolute path to the virtual machine's virtual drive and 100 GB with the desired drive space.

4. 

   Extend the drive partition. After you expand your drive space, you'll need to notify the operating system of this change. Go to "Computer Management" and select "Disk Management". Right click on "Volume" then choose "Extend Volume." advertisement

Advice

• You will not be able to complete this task if the virtual machine is on or you have not deleted the snapshot.
• There may be times when you want to create a new drive rather than extend the current drive and transfer data to it.

Warning

• Before expanding the drive, you should make a backup of your existing data.
• If you try to change the drive space in Lab Manager, you will lose all your data. If more space is needed on the virtual machine, you should create a new virtual drive of the desired capacity and move the data to the new drive.