Inflate Thin Virtual Disks

If you created a virtual disk in the thin format, you can convert the thin disk to a virtual disk in thick provision format.

You use the datastore browser to inflate the virtual disk.

Prerequisites

• Make sure that the datastore where the virtual machine resides has enough space.
• Make sure that the virtual disk is thin.
• Remove snapshots.
• Power off your virtual machine.

Procedure

1. Navigate to the folder of the virtual disk you want to inflate.
   1. In the vSphere Web Client, browse to the virtual machine.
   2. Click the Datastores tab.
      The datastore that stores the virtual machine files is listed.
   3. Select the datastore and click the Browse Files icon ().
      The datastore browser displays contents of the datastore.
2. Expand the virtual machine folder and browse to the virtual disk file that you want to convert.
   The file has the .vmdk extension and is marked with the virtual disk ( ) icon.
3. Right-click the virtual disk file and select Inflate.
   Note: The option might not be available if the virtual disk is thick or when the virtual machine is running.

Results

The inflated virtual disk occupies the entire datastore space originally provisioned to it.