increase size of virtual disk

[ChipMcK]

You can just use computer management/disk management, right click on the partition and select 'extend' to extend the partition once you have used the VBox command line to make the disk larger, you don't need any third party tools, this is now built into Windows.

Windows XP does not have the 'extend' option

[iem]

I have the same question. Any solutions for Windows XP?
Please tell me I don't have to do the whole install again. I might cry. Seriously. Thanks.

[ChipMcK]

For those with Widows XP guests, the following products will safely grow/expand the partition AFTER the virtual hard disk file has been expanded
http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-par ... nager.html
http://www.partition-tool.com/
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-express/

All are free and are to be installed in Windows

[iem]

Thanks, but I'm still on the first part - trying to expand the Hard disk. The instructions above apply to .vdi. I tried the following:
VBoxManage modifyhd "/Users/[username]/VirtualBox VMs/Windows XP-2/Windows XP-2.vmdk" --resize 40960
but it says this function is not yet available for .vmdk. which is what I have.
I see another file in that directory. Windows XP-2.vbox - should I try it on that one?

[ChipMcK]

The least eror prone instructions are those posted by "vkov_tinsky" above (more aligned to doing the task on real hardware).
Then use one of the partition managers

[iem]

Thanks - am trying those procedures. I'm not great with some of this stuff, so I'm afraid I don't understand how to:
Boot GParted Live in a VM with both old and new VDIs attached.

How do I attach both? I booted up the new .vdi with GParted, and I see it listed there. How do I add the other one? Or, if I am supposed to somehow link the two before I run GParted, how do I do that?

Thanks so much!

[vboxuser799]

I posted earlier and wanted to follow up. I'm running a Mac 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) host with a Win XP guest. I was able to make my 40GB .vmdk into a 503.5GB .vdi virtual disk. I followed the instructions here:

http://justintung.wordpress.com/2011/01 ... omment-853

I expanded the partition with the free partition manager software here: http://www.extend-partition.com/free-pa ... nager.html. No problems whatsoever. Hope this info helps someone.

[PerseP]

You can just use computer management/disk management, right click on the partition and select 'extend' to extend the partition once you have used the VBox command line to make the disk larger, you don't need any third party tools, this is now built into Windows.

AFAIK it's only in windows 7 and definitely not in windows xp. Not sure in vista

[stefan.becker]

since vista this is possible.

[F4k3]

I'm having trouble resizing an existing dynamic .vdi image, with a Windows XP guest. As a host I'm on Ubuntu 10.04. So here is what I've done
VBoxManage modifyhd image.vdi --resize 32768
- this showed some percent and finished without errors, now I've checked hd info
VBoxManage showhdinfo image.vdi

Accessible: yes
Logical size: 32768 MBytes
Current size on disk: 3989 MBytes
Type: normal (base)
Storage format: VDI
Format variant: dynamic default

Looks ok. But when I log in to Windows and launch a partition tool (tried with 2, Easus Partition Master and Aomei Partition Assistant Home Edition 4.0) there is no unallocated space available, only the original disk with unexpanded size.

Any ideas on a possible solution would be great!

[mpack]

@F4k3: if you are using snapshots then the disk size can't be changed this way. That's because you are modifying the (frozen) base VDI, which doesn't help the current state at all. You need to delete the snapshots first. It would be wise to make a backup of the VM before beginning surgery of this kind.

[F4k3]

No snapshots, just "Current state" for which I could create a snapshot.

[mpack]

Check again: the symptoms you described earlier can only be caused by one of two things.

1. You didn't enlarge the disk at all.
2. You are using snapshots.

Take your pick.

[F4k3]

Well, wish it was that easy! Here is a result of showhdinfo - shows more than 32GB of space
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/85 ... ot1xn.jpg/
Here is a list of snapshots associated with my .vdi image
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62 ... otdsn.jpg/

What am I missing?

[mpack]

You are missing proof that this is the disk you currently have mounted in the VM, and an image of what the guests Disk Manager has to say about the contents of that drive.