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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 147
Chapter 8 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware
Virtual Disk Maintenance Tasks
Defragmentingvirtualdiskscanimproveperformance.Shrinkingvirtualdisks
reclaimsunusedspace.
Defragmenting Virtual Disks
Likephysicaldisks,virtualdiskscanbecomefragmented.Defragmentationrearranges
data,applications,andunusedspaceonthevirtualdisksothatprogramsrunfasterand
filesopenmorequickly.
Beforeyoubegin,makesurethatyouhaveadequatefreeworkingspaceonthehost
system.Ifyourvirtualdiskiscontained
inasinglefile,forexample,youneedfreespace
equaltothesizeofthevirtualdisk.Othervirtualdiskconfigurationsrequirelessfree
space.
Defragmentationdoesnotreclaimunusedspaceonavirtualdisk.Forinformation
abouthowtoreclaimunusedspace,see“ShrinkingVirtualDisks”onpage 147.
To defragment a virtual disk
1Run
adiskdefragmentationutilityinsidetheguestoperatingsystem.
Forexample,inaWindowsXPguestoperatingsystem,usetheWindowsXPDisk
Defragmenterutility.
2Runadiskdefragmentationutilityonthehostsystem.
Defragmentingdiskscantakeconsiderabletime.
Shrinking Virtual Disks
Shrinkingavirtualdiskreclaimsunusedspaceinthevirtualdisk.Ifadiskhasempty
space,thisprocessreducestheamountofspacethatthevirtualdiskoccupiesonthe
physicalharddisk.
Onlyshrinkvirtualdiskswhentheamountofusedspaceonthevirtualharddiskis
significantly
lowerthanthesizeofthe.vmdkfilesassociatedwiththevirtualdisk.For
informationaboutthefilesassociatedwithavirtualdisk,seeAppendix B,“FilesThat
MakeUpaVirtualMachine,”onpage 323.
Beforeshrinkingavirtualdisk,makesurethatthefollowingprerequisitesaremet:
VMwareToolsisinstalledintheguestoperatingsystem.
Thehostsystemhasfreediskspaceequaltothesizeofthevirtualdiskyouplanto
shrink.