How to expand/resize/extend C drive VMware Server within several minutes?
Why resize/extend C drive VMware Server?
VMware is the most popular Virtual Machine software for now. It is easy to use and works like a physical computer. The most common problem of VMware is related to disk partition space. For example, after a period of time, you may find the system C drive running out space, so you have to resize/extend C drive VMware Server. To most of the people, it is extremely hard to extend C drive on VMware Server.
Common VMware Server disk partition space problem
1. As I mentioned above, the system C drive runs out of space and you need to resize or expand VMware Server partitions.
2. C drive and the entire virtual disk is low disk space, so you cannot extend C drive VMware Server by resizing other data partitions.
3. Though VMware is virtual machine, it will use the physical partition space. When there is no free space on this physical partition, what will you do? Delete this partition including the VMware Server? No, no one wants to do this, in this article, I’ll tell the easy method – extend this partition directly without data loss.
In the next paragraphs, I’ll tell you how to solve these problems one by one.
How to extend C drive VMware Server?
Step 1: Install Partition Wizard in your VMware Server and launch it, right-click the data partition and select “Move/Resize” to shrink this partition.
In the pop up window, drag the left borderline of this data partition rightwards.
After step 1, there will be Unallocated space created behind the system partition.
Step 2: Right-click the system C drive and select “Move/Resize”. In the pop up window, drag the right borderline rightwards.
Now the system partition has been extended, click “Apply”.
How to extend C drive and entire disk space?
As I mentioned above, if there is no free space in other data partition, you cannot extend C drive by shrinking the data partition, you need to extend the entire virtual disk space firstly. After that, you will get Unallocated space to extend C drive.
Steps to extend entire hard disk:
Step1: Open up Run dialogue from the start menu (Start -> Run) or hold down the Windows key and press R. Type “cmd” and hit enter to open up the Command Prompt.
Step2: Run VMware disk manager tool, the format is like this: “AA\vmware-vdiskmanager.exe” –x BB.GB(MB) “CC\DD.VMDK”.
AA: The absolute path of vmware-vdiskmanager.exe
BB: What size you want to extend the VMware virtual disk to
CC: The absolute path of the virtual disk you want to extend
DD: The name of the virtual disk want to extend
Input the command and press enter to proceed, after that, the virtual disk will be extended and there will be “BB.GB(MB) Unallocated space at the end of the virtual disk.
Step3: Follow the steps of “How to extend C drive VMware Server?” and the second problem could be solved.
To solve the third problem, it is very easy, too. Just install Partition Wizard on the physical computer and resize the partitions.
Jordan is one of the editors of HDD TOOL, which provides common solutions to solve hard disk drive and operating system problem freely.