how to extend Virtual Box harddrive?

Question

I run WinXP SP3 on my Virtual Box (3.2.10) under OSX 10.6.2 and the harddrive of the virtual box is getting too small.

Can I

• extend exiting hdd somehow?
• create new Virtual Box from a running computer? (Virtual Box in my case?)

Answer 1

Process using only vboxmanage(which you already have if you have vbox) to make a new larger image and cloning the data across os here: http://alittletothewright.com/index.php/2009/11/expanding-virtualbox-dynamic-vdis/. you can then use the windows partitioning tools to expand the partitions.

Answer 2

There are several things you can do to increase the size of your disk (like booting GParted and increasing the partition size) but I'd recommend the following:

1. Create a new disk, larger than the current one and dynamically expending
2. Mount the new disk on your VM
3. Download EASUS Disk Copy 2.3 ISO (free)
4. Boot your VM from Disc Copy ISO
5. Copy the old disk to the new one
6. "Eject" the ISO and mark the new disk as your boot disk - you now have a larger disk containing the contenst of the old one.

If your VM has a Windows OS, it may be that you now have 2 partitions on the new disk. You can use the Windows interface or DiskPArt to merge them, if you'd like.

Answer 3

I don't know how to make it larger after making it, but when making a new virtual drive, you can set it as "Dynamically expanding" so it will get larger as it fills up. So you might be able to make a new VM with a Dynamically expanding drive and transfer your data over.