Inflate Thin Virtual Disks

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

You use the datastore browser to inflate the thin 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. In the vSphere Client, navigate to the folder of the virtual disk you want to inflate.
   1. Navigate to the virtual machine.
   2. Click the Datastores tab.
      The datastore that stores the virtual machine files is listed.
   3. Right-click the datastore and select Browse Files.
      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. Select the virtual disk file and click 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.