Extending Fixed vdi file

[gam]

Hi,

I spent the best part of today trying to do this. First of all, I had to clone the vdi to an extendable format using VBoxManage. That went ok. Then I had to extend it using VBoxManage. That was ok too. Problems started when I tried to extend the volume to use up the remaining unallocated space of the extended disk in Windows in Windows Disk Manager. That resulted in my erasing the MBR on the disk. So then I spent some time fixing that, eventually. Finally, when I thought all had been fixed and I had just booted my newly re-sized Windows volume, I got a non-genuine Windows message, with no seeming option to do anything in the booted Win 7 Pro x64 system...

Can anyone suggest a way of doing this so that I won't run into these troubles? Surely - it can't be *that* hard? I want the current system (originally on the fixed size disk) to go on the newer, larger disk. I do not want to re-isnstall Win 7 Pro (again).

Thanks,

GAM

[Perryg]

I tried to extend the volume to use up the remaining unallocated space of the extended disk in Windows in Windows Disk Manager

Given that you say everything you used with VirtualBox worked and you had a failure when using the Windows disk manager I would say you probably need to ask MS what to do.

Are you really using Virtual Box 1.4.1-beta 2 as stated in you Sig.?

[mpack]

Surely - it can't be *that* hard?

I'm puzzled that you would make a series of bad decisions - bypassing defaults intended at least in part to make life easier for you - and then complain that things are hard to do.

Even taking what you want to do, you chose the hard way to do it. Searching the forums using Google would have helped you a lot.

Had you gone with a dynamic disk then life would have been easier - so that would be my #1 suggestion. CloneVDI would have been an easier choice for extending the disk, even if it was still fixed size.

[gam]

I'm puzzled that you would make a series of bad decisions - bypassing defaults intended at least in part to make life easier for you - and then complain that things are hard to do.

Can you explain please what you mean by a series of bad decisions? I probably made *one* bad decision; i.e. to go with a fixed size disk initially for my VM.

Even taking what you want to do, you chose the hard way to do it. Searching the forums using Google would have helped you a lot.

Well - searching the forums came up with the way I *did* end up doing it. At least up until I hit Windoze world.

Had you gone with a dynamic disk then life would have been easier - so that would be my #1 suggestion. CloneVDI would have been an easier choice for extending the disk, even if it was still fixed size.

So - you're advocating I should re-install Win 7 (guest OS) on a newly created dynamic disk then? I was trying to avoid that... :/

[gam]

Given that you say everything you used with VirtualBox worked and you had a failure when using the Windows disk manager I would say you probably need to ask MS what to do.

Yes - but the overall method failed when I hit Windows. I guess what I'm asking is if there is a better way such that it won't. It seems from mpack's previous reply that there is. I should make clear that this is my primary system/boot drive for Windows 7 I'm talking about.

Are you really using Virtual Box 1.4.1-beta 2 as stated in you Sig.?

It was late when I made this post and I couldn't be bothered to change my sig before I did so. It's updated with the correct info now.

[Perryg]

As far as I am concerned what happened in the past is in the past. Going forward you will find it a lot easier if you just use the default dynamic instead of fixed.

But it is only when you hit the Windows part that you encountered issues and I stand by my assessment that the cause was Windows for what ever reason. Not a lot we can do about that I am afraid and you would need to get their input on how to keep this from happening again. I will say that it does not happen all that often so it may just be better to move on. Probably will not happen again.

[mpack]

Had you gone with a dynamic disk then life would have been easier - so that would be my #1 suggestion. CloneVDI would have been an easier choice for extending the disk, even if it was still fixed size.

So - you're advocating I should re-install Win 7 (guest OS) on a newly created dynamic disk then?

Eh? No, I'm not advocating that. I am however advocating converting the disk to dynamic, which you have to do to resize it anyway, and for the long term just leave it that way.

[scottgus1]

I had to clone the vdi to an extendable format using VBoxManage. That went ok.

This would mean you still have the original vdi somewhere, so you aren't dead in the water. You can use CloneVDI to clone the vdi again. Save the clone in the same folder as the original vdi, should be the default location CloneVDI picks. Keep the old UUID, Increase the virtual drive size to your desired size, and Increase the partition size. (You will see what these mean when you open CloneVDI.)

Now reattach the old small fixed vdi to your guest and boot it. It should come up activated, since the vdi is the original. Then shut down the guest. In the folder where the old small fixed guest vdi is located you will find the new clone. Rename the old vdi to some other name, then rename the cloned vdi to the old vdi's name (if you left all the defaults in CloneVDI, you should just have to remove the "Clone of " from the front of the cloned vdi name). Now your guest will boot to the new vdi. Unless you had a million unusual partitions in the guest OS, the main partition will fill out the extra space you added.

You should be good to go!

[gam]

[
Eh? No, I'm not advocating that. I am however advocating converting the disk to dynamic, which you have to do to resize it anyway, and for the long term just leave it that way.

But - I have done that. I have a(n extended) clone of my original fixed size disk which is now (normal/dynamic) which I then tried to get working with my Windows VM. And that's when I ran into the problems.

[gam]

This would mean you still have the original vdi somewhere, so you aren't dead in the water. You can use CloneVDI to clone the vdi again. Save the clone in the same folder as the original vdi, should be the default location CloneVDI picks. Keep the old UUID, Increase the virtual drive size to your desired size, and Increase the partition size. (You will see what these mean when you open CloneVDI.)

Well - thanks for the pointer, and that looks like a very handy utility, but my host is a Mac. So, given I only have the functionality of VBox, vboxmanage & Win 7, how do I get to this point? You're correct - I do have the original vdi. I see from the CloneVDI post that I can clone the vdi in VBox, but that seems to just mimic the functionality of the vboxmanage command - no option to keep UUID (the way I'm reading it) or increase the partition size (which is the crucial step & the one that lost me my MBR when I did it in Windows).

b.t.w. Is there a man page for vboxmanage? A search on the site yielded nothing.

Now reattach the old small fixed vdi to your guest and boot it. It should come up activated, since the vdi is the original. Then shut down the guest. In the folder where the old small fixed guest vdi is located you will find the new clone. Rename the old vdi to some other name, then rename the cloned vdi to the old vdi's name (if you left all the defaults in CloneVDI, you should just have to remove the "Clone of " from the front of the cloned vdi name). Now your guest will boot to the new vdi. Unless you had a million unusual partitions in the guest OS, the main partition will fill out the extra space you added.

You should be good to go!

Thanks - I'm taking it I will be able to do what's in para 2 & hence be good to go, if I can first do what CloneVDI does in para 1 - right?

[mpack]

CloneVDI runs well on OS X and Linux, under Wine.