Nearly out of disc space

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kyle m
Posts: 7
Joined: 25. Jun 2021, 21:46

Nearly out of disc space

Post by kyle m »

Hi All!

I keep getting a notification on my guest Windows 10 machine that I'm almost out of disk space on the C drive. I increased the size of my virtual disk by about 20GB, but now I'm not sure how to allocate that extra space to my C drive specifically. I know how to partition it as a separate drive, but that doesn't get the error message to go away b/c it's the C drive that is almost full.

Any ideas so the "almost out of disk space" notification stops appearing?

Thank you all so so much. Seriously appreciated.
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mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Nearly out of disc space

Post by mpack »

How to use the Windows partition manager is actually a Windows support question, somewhat beyond the scope of the VirtualBox forums. I will give a brief answer, but for details you should consult Google.

Ok, you found your way to Disk Management. That's good, that is where you change the disk layout in Windows.

And yes, I see the extra 20.69GB. Unfortunately that 508MB recovery partition is getting in the way. I suggest you Google for how to delete it (if you know how to back up your VM - which you should do right now - then you don't need that recovery partition). Once it's gone it should be a simple matter to extend your ~49GB C: volume to span the remainder of the disk.

Howto: Back up a VM.
kyle m
Posts: 7
Joined: 25. Jun 2021, 21:46

Re: Nearly out of disc space

Post by kyle m »

Thank you so much!

Deleting the recovery partition worked. I made sure to clone my machine before I did it in the event it ends up screwing something up, but for now, it seems to have worked. I used this video as guidance for anyone else who may be wondering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C2Frs3DRPI

Thanks again!
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Nearly out of disc space

Post by mpack »

Cloning is not the same as making a backup. Cloning changes all the machine UUIDs, therefore the Windows guest OS will probably not be activated. Likewise any other guest software which is locked to that PC. Linux VMs might not boot at all, as they sometimes use disk UUIDs to identify the boot drive.

Luckily it looks like you did not destroy the original VM, so this is not the disaster it could have been.

The FAQ I referred you to gives instructions on the correct way to make a backup.
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