How to increase HD size

[hanske72]

It has been written in many ways how to do this. This was my "simple" solution to the challange.

In short:
1. Download G4L-iso
2. Download GParted-iso
3. Create a new empty HD-VDI as big as you want it
4. Attach first both HDs - new blank and old (too smal) and G4L-iso
5. Boot from CD
6. Use Feature "Click and clone" in G4L to clone old to new
7. Detach too smal HD and G4L-iso
8. Attach GParted-iso
9. Boot from CD
10. Increase size of partition
Done!

[Perryg]

Actually all you need is the following.

• 2. Download GParted-iso
  5. Boot from CD (in the guest)
  10. Increase size of partition

Done!

[hanske72]

Have I missed something? How can you increase a partition when the whole disk is already used?

I have a 20GB disk and need 30GB. Can I boot GParted and increase it 10GB without cloning?? Sounds like magic

GParted will only see 20GB and there will be nothing to increase!?

[mpack]

VirtualBox has in-place disk enlargment built in now, you don't need to go through the above rigmarole.

[hanske72]

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage modifyhd "A:\vBoxHD\Win7.vdi" --resize 30000
0%...
Progress state: VBOX_E_NOT_SUPPORTED
VBoxManage.exe: error: Resize hard disk operation for this format is not impleme
nted yet!

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>

???

[Leak]

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage modifyhd "A:\vBoxHD\Win7.vdi" --resize 30000
0%...
Progress state: VBOX_E_NOT_SUPPORTED
VBoxManage.exe: error: Resize hard disk operation for this format is not impleme
nted yet!

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>

???

The manual says the following:

The --resize option allows you to expand the capacity of an existing image; this increases the logical size of a virtual disk without affecting the physical size much. This currently works only for the VDI and VHD formats, and only for the dynamically expanding variants. For example, if you originally created a 10G disk which is now full, you can use the --resize command to add more space to the virtual disk without having to create a new image and copy all data from within a virtual machine.

If your hard disc image happens to be of fixed size resizing is not supported.

[Perryg]

Resize hard disk operation for this format is not implement yet!

Is a generic error that means something is not what VirtualBox recognizes. If the disk is already 30000MB and you try to use the same size it will produce the error since VB sees this as a shrink or a statement that can not be preformed because it is equal to the actual size of the disk and that is not supported. As well as what Leak said about the dynamic versus fixed drive.

[hanske72]

I still cannot get this function to work.

Now something even more strange happens. When I run the command VirtualBox starts, and nothing happens. If I try to run the command with VB open - it opens another one!

Earlier at least it started with 0%...

[florthil]

thats surprising. thanks to this forum, i was able to resize my harddisc. the command worked just fine.

c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe modifyhd "\Virt
ualBox VMs\Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vdi" --resize 30720
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>

[amccombs]

I resized my from 10GB to 15GB.
I got the 100%. VirtualBox sees the drive is 15GB. However the host os, XP, does not see the 15GB it still sees the 10GB, and it's drive manager does not see any unused drive space for me to expand.
What do I do now for the host to see the new drive space?

[vbox4me2]

What do I do now for the host to see the new drive space?

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... ad#p176948
You might need to see your optician.

[hanske72]

Is it possible it only works if there is only 1 partition? I see thet Ubuntu.vdi worked fine, but I have a windows guest....??

[BillG]

So you have a Windows guest. That is not a problem in itself. I increased a Win 7 .vdi from 20 to 25 G recently. You don't even need gparted to increase the partition. You can increase the partition from disk manager in Windows 7.

[amccombs]

What do I do now for the host to see the new drive space?

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... ad#p176948
You might need to see your optician.

I guess I do need to, all I see is crap with that link.

Actually all you need is the following.

• 2. Download GParted-iso
  5. Boot from CD (in the guest)
  10. Increase size of partition

Done!

seariously? GParted-iso? shows to be linux, how will that help windows guest?
I already resized it, all I need to do is have the os see it.

[Perryg]

Ah another satisfied Windows user.
You can do this the Windows way and use the recommended Windows approach of diskpart (look it up if you choose that way)
Or you can simply download Gparted and mount it to the guests CD/DVD and boot the guest.
Don't worry it will not corrupt you to use Linux it simply is a lot easier way to increase the partition then diskpart.