virtualbox.org

Hi!

I created a virtual machine too big for what i am using it for.
As i prefer not to reinstall, i wonder if there is any way that i can resize the disk image (its a linux system what is installed on it) and make it smaller.....

Thanks!

You need to clarify: do you want to reduce the maximum size of a dynamic drive, the size of a fixed size drive, or do you simply want to compact the contents of a dynamic drive?

Sesize the size of a dynamic drive.

(i.e.) its 12 gb big, and i want to reduce it to, let's say, 6gb....
used size being 2Gb....

You can't easily change the size of the drive itself, but a gparted live-cd can be used to shrink the size of the partition. A dynamic drive can't grow to be larger than its only partition, and this way you have the option to increase the partition size again in future.

Note that starving a filesystem of "elbow room" is not recommended. Take care.


Rereading, I notice that your answer to my question is still vague. There is a difference between changing the maximum size and the actual size, and despite prompting you still have not told me which you mean. The above is how you change the maximum size, it will not reduce the actual size (in fact the actual size will most likely increase substantially). Reducing the actual size is done by compacting free space, e.g. using the "Compact drive while copying" option in my CloneVDI tool.