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Why is this VDI file so flipping huge?
Posted: 16. Apr 2017, 04:26
by Forbin & Cleo
I have a Windows Server VM that has a 150GB OS disk (20 GB free) and no other drives or volumes of any kind. Why is the VDI file 452GB in size? I tried shrinking it with the Linux virtualbox commands, but no change. Why is this file so much bigger than what Windows sees?
I don’t know if it is relevant, but I noticed that in Windows, the Virtual Disk Service is in a stopped state. When I try to start it, it stops again after a moment with no errors.
Re: Why is this VDI file so flipping huge?
Posted: 16. Apr 2017, 08:03
by socratis
Re: Why is this VDI file so flipping huge?
Posted: 16. Apr 2017, 16:35
by Forbin & Cleo
Post the output of:
VBoxManage showmediuminfo <FullPathToVDI>
Code: Select all
[root@vmhost08a lab03]# vboxmanage showmediuminfo lab03_new.vdi
UUID: 0d3a9dd6-e879-46f7-824e-4423d59c008e
Parent UUID: base
State: locked write
Type: normal (base)
Location: /vmdir/lab03/lab03_new.vdi
Storage format: VDI
Format variant: dynamic default
Capacity: 512000 MBytes
Size on disk: 463007 MBytes
Encryption: disabled
In use by VMs: lab03_new (UUID: 85db7413-0728-4bf5-a182-28ff990c7976)
Re: Why is this VDI file so flipping huge?
Posted: 16. Apr 2017, 18:05
by mpack
So the VDI is not 150GB capacity, the capacity is 500GB. Hence the answer to the question posed in the topic title.
Re: Why is this VDI file so flipping huge?
Posted: 16. Apr 2017, 18:06
by Forbin & Cleo
Well, it looks like you’re correct. I looked at this previously and was sure it had a single 150GB partition, but I just checked the VM again, and it actually has a 500GB partition. You’re absolutely right. At some point, data must have been written to the partition and then deleted. Sorry for wasting your time.