5.0

3 In the Add Hardware wizard, select Hard Disk.
4 Select Use an existing virtual disk.
5 Specify the path name and filename for the existing disk file.
6 Click Finish to add the existing virtual hard disk.
7 Click OK to save your changes.
Compact a Virtual Hard Disk
Compacting a virtual hard disk reclaims unused space in the virtual disk. If a disk has empty space, this process
reduces the amount of space the virtual disk occupies on the host drive.
Prerequisites
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Power off the virtual machine.
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Verify that the virtual disk is not mapped or mounted. You cannot compact a virtual disk while it is
mapped or mounted.
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Verify that the disk space is not preallocated for the virtual hard disk. If the disk space was preallocated,
you cannot compact the disk.
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If the virtual hard disk is an independent disk, verify that it is in persistent mode.
Procedure
1 Select the virtual machine and select Player > Manage > Virtual Machine Settings.
2 On the Hardware tab, select the virtual hard disk to compact.
3 Select Utilities > Compact.
4 Click OK after the disk compacting process is complete.
Expand a Virtual Hard Disk
You can add storage space to a virtual machine by expanding its virtual hard disk.
When you expand a virtual hard disk, the added space is not immediately available to the virtual machine. To
make the added space available, you must use a disk management tool to increase the size of the existing
partition on the virtual hard disk to match the expanded size.
The disk management tool that you use depends on the virtual machine guest operating system. Many
operating systems, including Windows Vista, Windows 7, and some versions of Linux, provide built-in disk
management tools that can resize partitions. Third-party disk management tools are also available, such as
Symantec/Norton PartitionMagic, EASEUS Partition Master, Acronis Disk Director, and the open-source tool
GParted.
When you expand the size of a virtual hard disk, the sizes of partitions and file systems are not affected.
As an alternative to expanding a virtual hard disk, you can add a new virtual hard disk to the virtual machine.
See “Add a New Virtual Hard Disk to a Virtual Machine,” on page 78.
Prerequisites
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Power off the virtual machine.
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Verify that the virtual disk is not mapped or mounted. You cannot expand a virtual disk while it is mapped
or mounted.
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Verify that the virtual machine has no snapshots.
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Verify that the virtual machine is not a linked clone or the parent of a linked clone.
Getting Started with VMware Player
80 VMware, Inc.