Expanding Virtual Hard Disks

Expanding a virtual hard disk adds storage space to the virtual machine.

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 7 and later, and many 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, partition and file-system size are not affected.

To expand a virtual hard disk for a selected virtual machine, select Player > Manage > Virtual Machine Settings, select the virtual hard disk, and select Expand from the Utilities menu.

Note: As an alternative to expanding a virtual hard disk, you can add a new virtual hard disk to the virtual machine.