Way to shrink a VDI with least amount of hassle?

[DrD]

Google wasn't being too helpful. I'm just curious what the easiest way to shrink a VDI file is.

I've already defraged and zero'd the unused space. Anyway to shrink the VDI in place now that I've done these steps?

[MarkCranness]

Cleanup > Defrag > CloneVDI (with 'Compact drive while copying' checked - zeroes space for you).
To do 'in-place' (will rename the old file) set Source and Destination filename the same (also set 'Keep old UUID' if using in-place).
If your guest is Linux-like, then likely use the 'Keep old UUID' option (ask).

[mpack]

I've already defraged and zero'd the unused space. Anyway to shrink the VDI in place now that I've done these steps?

I would suggest that you edit your profile to indicate your normal host and guest OS types, as that would allow us to answer questions like yours more specifically.

Mark's answer is probably accurate, but I should mention that zeroing the empty space in the guest is not necessary if you use CloneVDI and the guest has a common filesystem (NTFS, FAT, or EXT2/3/4). A defrag may bring some benefits, but if you want the least possible hassle then you can skip that step too - or at least you don't need to do it every time.

[JshWright]

If you've zero'd the empty space, then all you need to do is run:

Code: Select all

VBoxManage modifyhd /path/to/your.vdi --compact

[DrD]

If you've zero'd the empty space, then all you need to do is run:

Code: Select all

VBoxManage modifyhd /path/to/your.vdi --compact

That last part was useful for my windows partition, thank you.

Now I am having a rather tough time with my Ubuntu install. I don't know how to zero the space first. I tried zerofree, which was in the ubuntu repositories. I tried to use it on my Ubuntu 9.04 ext3 partition, by following this guide:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=908128

I get as far as the last part where I actually run the darn thing. Device was /dev/sda1. I re-mounted it with this command, with no issues:
mount -n -o remount,ro -t ext3 /dev/sda1 /

But when I run:
zerofree /dev/sda1

Nothing happens. It just gets to the next line and sits there. No errors. Nothing. I even left it for over an hour. Still nothing. Had to CTRL - C to get back to a prompt.

On a less objective note, this whole process pisses me off. Everything's convoluted; half the things I read just don't work. I have a massive 12.8 GB vdi file with only < 3 GB of used space on it.

[mpack]

On a less objective note, this whole process pisses me off. Everything's convoluted; half the things I read just don't work.

Don't work? Perhaps, or perhaps just finger trouble. Convoluted? and I would add - slow? Absolutely. Why do you think I wrote CloneVDI?, and why do you think I made sure it worked independantly of VBoxManage?

You may still want to consider CloneVDI. I believe you could run it under Wine on an OS X host, failing that you could even run it inside a Windows guest, if you can give it access to the VDIs in a network shared folder. I would warn against attempting to run it inside the guest whose VDI you are cloning, but there's probably no need as I don't think that's even possible (you would get a sharing violation).

[huffring]

But when I run:
zerofree /dev/sda1

Nothing happens. It just gets to the next line and sits there. No errors. Nothing. I even left it for over an hour. Still nothing. Had to CTRL - C to get back to a prompt.

Try "zerofree -v /dev/sda1" next time. The "-v" stands for verbose and shows you the progress.