Resize a VM hard-drive (virtualbox)

Question

Is there a way to resize a VM hard drive? I am using virtualbox and I have a VM that has run out of space, looked into the settings but it seems I may have to create another partition. I thought there might be an easier way, anyone have an idea?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can use VBoxManage.

You can see details here.

After resizing hard disk , you will have to resize partition(s).

For ext3 partition you can follow these steps.

Answer 2

This worked on a VHD with a bootable image of Win7:

1. VirtualBox -> Virtual Media Manager -> Copy

2. C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe modifyhd "c:\VirtualMachines\Windows 7 Large.vhd" --resize 2000000

3. VirtualBox -> VM -> Settings -> release current VHD and mount new VHD

4. Boot VM into Windows

5. Use Computer Management -> Disk Manager -> right-click on partition -> Extend

Answer 3

For a vdi this worked, the host being Windows 7.

c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage.exe modifyhd "C:\Users\busey\VirtualBox VMs\ubuntu10.10\ubuntu10.10.vdi" --resize 20480

Answer 4

There is an article about this: http://coderjournal.com/2011/07/reducing-the-size-of-a-virtualbox-hard-drive/

Short but sufficient. In short:

• delete temp files (obvious)
• defragment (assuming your guest filesystem can be defragmented)
• use VBoxManage, as other users suggest

Answer 5

CloneVDI can help do this. You can create a clone of an existing VDI and increase the disk size at the same time. Used this without any problems for a couple of years.