Increasing storage

[ahai]

Dear sir,

I am usiong Windows 2008 64bit guest, and I have trouble in installing additional updates because there is no more disk space. How can I increase the virtual storage for this guest?

Regards

[Perryg]

Have a look at this and see if it will help CloneVDI Tool

[ahai]

Thank you Perryg, It really works, but when I attached the new Virtual hard disk with the guest it still shows that no more free space on drive C: (in the guest's MyComputer). whereas VirtualBox shows the new maximum storage space. Shall I do something with the guest or VirtualBox before using the new Virtual hard disk?

Thank you

[Etepetete]

You have to enlarge the partition to fill up the hard disk.

[ahai]

Thank you Etepetete,

But the partition is large enough to accommodate the virtual hard disk. Also, I already enlarged the virtual hard disk, So, why the guest doesn't recognize it?

Best Regards.

[mpack]

But the partition is large enough to accommodate the virtual hard disk. Also, I already enlarged the virtual hard disk, So, why the guest doesn't recognize it?

I'm not sure what that first sentence means. Given that the guest doesn't see a size increase, it seems that you have enlarged the drive, but you have not enlarged the main partition on the drive. CloneVDI has an option to enlarge the main partition which is separate to the option for enlarging the drive. You may not have selected the "enlarge partition" option. If you did select that option then it's possible that the partitioning scheme on the drive is not one supported by CloneVDI (I have no experience of what a Win2K8 server drive looks like), hence the selection was ignored. In that case you would need to try a third party partitioning tool, such as the gparted live CD.

Incidentally, once you have successfully enlarged the partition I suggest the very next thing you do is defragment the drive. A drive that became so full that you actually ran out of space is likely to have become heavily fragmented, and repartitioning alone will not fix that.

[MarkCranness]

Does the VM have any snapshots? If so, you must clone NOT the base VDI file, but the correct {hexUUID}.vdi file in the machine snapshots folder.

[mpack]

Does the VM have any snapshots? If so, you must clone NOT the base VDI file, but the correct {hexUUID}.vdi file in the machine snapshots folder.

I think he would have got an error message from VirtualBox if he tried that, due to the modification UUID of the base VDI being different from the one given the "parent modification UUID" field of the snapshot.

[MarkCranness]

I think he would have got an error message from VirtualBox if he tried that, due to the modification UUID of the base VDI being different from the one given the "parent modification UUID" field of the snapshot.

Only if he has somehow modified the base VDI file, which if all he is doing is cloneing it, should not have happened.
Yes, if he used 'Keep old UUID' and copied over the old base VDI file, but he may not have done that.

My comment doesn't help solve the ' it still shows that no more free space on drive C 'problem the OP has, I'm just saying 'make sure you clone the correct VDI file'.

[mpack]

Yes, if he used 'Keep old UUID' and copied over the old base VDI file, but he may not have done that.

As I understand it, you were suggesting that he might have resized a base VDI in a snapshot chain, and the current state somehow hides the size change. There are two possibilities relevant to that idea :-

(1) He cloned and enlarged the base vdi, changing the creation UUID. In that case the clone has to be registered as a new image, and the snapshots suggestion doesn't arise.

(2) Ditto, except he chose to keep the old creation UUID. However a VDI file actually has four UUIDs in the header (create, modify, parent-create, parent-modify). The "Keep old UUID" option only keeps the create UUID. A new modify UUID is always created, and the parent links are set to zero. If the OP replaced a snapshot base with a cloned VDI in these circumstances then the parent-modify UUID of first child state would conflict with the modify UUID of the base, and VirtualBox should give an error message. I haven't tested that it does so, but this why the modify UUIDs exist at all.

Certainly the OP needs to be sure he cloned the right VDI file!