Windows doesn't see enlarged virtual disk.

[TeraBill]

Hi:

I am using Virtual Box 5.1.6r110634(Qt5.5.1) and a Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit Operating system. I can append logs if needed. Here is my problem. When I created the VM I allowed it to create the default 25 gig dynamic partition (assuming it would grow to meet need). This was not the case as a MS SQL Express installation failed indicating that there was not enough room on disk to complete. Therefore I researched changing the size of the VM and successfully ran "vboxmanage modifymedium disk <filename> --resize 200000" command to resize the VM to 200 gigs. Now Virtual Box in the Storage section shows the VM ("Virtual Windows 7 Pro.vdi") as being (Normal, 195.31 GB) which would be fine. However, when I start the VM and it comes up in Windows it does not see the extra space. I had anticipated having to go to Disk Management and capturing the additional space and adding it to the 25Gig partition which already existed. However, Disk Management does not see the additional space as free or otherwise. It still sees ALL the space as being a 25Gig partition.

How can I get Windows to recognize this extra space allocated to it? At this point I couldn't even capture the space as an extra drive (although that would do me no good in what I am attempting to do).

Thank you.

[socratis]

FAQ: How to resize a Virtual Drive.

[TeraBill]

I went through the FAQ which was posted, and wanted to reiterate some things and add something.

The partition enlargement process was successful as far as Virtual Box is concerned. It enlarged a 25 gig partition to what is now seen by Virtual Box as a 195 gig partition. The problem is the operating system doesn't see it. As I am using Windows 7 Pro, the disk management software within Windows, "Disk Management" SHOULD see the extra space so I can enlarge the Windows Primary Partition, however it doesn't see the extra space at all, not after refreshes and rescanning disks as well. None of the criteria in the FAQ that would make this a problem are met. Second, as suggested in the fact you could also use GPartEd, the Linux utility to reorder your partition table. I booted to GPartEd and the view is the same as in Windows Disk Management. It still sees the single 25 gig partition but not the extra 170 gigs that were added. It doesn't see it as free space or anything.

Is there anything else I can do to get the extra space recognized? I can handle appending it to the existing partition.

Thanks,

Bill.

[Perryg]

Let me guess. You have snapshots, correct?
If so then you need to read the third topic in the link provided.

[alberto.villar]

Hello,

I had similar problems wins an Ubuntu host and Windows 10 guest. The original VM had 30 GB drive and I did an extension to 50 GB. Windows was running out of space but "diskpart" was showing 30 GB and no free space. I had no snapshots and the guest was a recent clone

Restarting the guest did not get me the 20 GB free space. The solution, in my case, was powering the machine off and then on. "diskpart" was then able to see the extra 20 GB and I could extend the partition.

Regards, Alberto

[socratis]

Alberto,
You resurrected three different threads with the same copy/paste message:

1. 2016-10-25: Windows doesn't see enlarged virtual disk
2. 2017-04-16: [Solved] Windows & Cannot See Unallocated Disk Space
3. 2017-09-22: [Solved] Incorrect free space

The solution that you provided is already in the FAQ and the threads have been locked, we don't want to keep "zombies" around...

By the way, keep in mind that according to the The Forum Posting Guide, duplicate posts are not allowed.

I kind of have to break that rule myself, just to justify why the threads have been locked.