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Increasing the size of a virtual disk partition

 Article ID: 323136  Updated On: 12-11-2024

Products

VMware VMware Desktop Hypervisor VMware vCenter Server VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Extending a virtual disk only extends a virtual machine's disk. This does not automatically
increase the size of the file system (such as NTFS for Windows and ext3 for Linux) within the
guest.

This article describes increasing the size of a disk partition. The virtual disk may have
unallocated space that you now want to use. You may also have increased the size of a virtual
machine's virtual disk but are unable to see the new space from the virtual machine's operating
system.

Symptoms:

• You need to increase the size of a virtual disk partition.

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Resolution

You can expand the size of the VMDK disk while the virtual machine is online. However, you must
reboot the guest operating system (OS) in the virtual machine so that it is aware of the size
change of the VMDK disk.

Also, ensure that the virtual machine is not running on snapshots, as this prevents the VMDK
from being extended.

To verify if the virtual machine is running on snapshot disks:

1. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.

Depending on the guest OS in the virtual machine, there are several methods available to
increase the file system within the virtual machine.

E xt e n d i n g a W i n d o w s g u e s t f i l e s y s t e m

No te: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8
and Windows Server 2012, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server
2016 and Windows Server 2019 can expand the volumes from the D is k M a n a g emen t in
Co mp u ter M a n a g emen t. Right-click on V o lu me and click Ex ten d V o lu me. For more
information, see Microsoft's documentation. Instead of rebooting the guest operating system, in
Computer Management, right-click D is k M a n a g emen t and click R es c a n D is k s .

• If the partition you are extending in the virtual machine contains a different version of
Windows, you may need to use a 3rd party tool to extend the partition.
• If you have another Windows virtual machine with the same version of the operating
system, you could temporarily attach the operating system VMDK to this virtual machine
(known as a helper VM) and extend the file system on the VMDK from this virtual machine
using the Windows DiskPart tool.
• If the VMDK disk you need to extend does not contain the operating system disk then you
can use DiskPart in the original virtual machine without the need for a helper VM.
• For more information on extending a VMDK disk using DiskPart, see the Microsoft
documentation: Extend a data volume in Windows

If you encounter a situation where you add more storage to an existing virtual machine's disk
volume, and DISKPART allows you to (apparently) successfully extend the volume, and yet from
Windows Explorer, the disk still shows the original size, check to ensure that the volume you are
trying to extend does not contain the page file.

No te: You cannot extend the partition if the system page file is located on the partition. Move
the page file to a partition that you do not want to extend.

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E xt e n d i n g a L i n u x g u e s t f i l e s ys t e m

If the Linux virtual machine has an ext4 or xfs file system under the control of Logical Volume
Manager (LVM) control then there are LVM tools to allow the file system to be extended.

For more information on extending an ext4 or xfs file system with LVM, see RedHat's
documentation: Growing a File System on a Logical Volume.

If you are running a file system that is not uner the control of the LVM, you may need to research
an alternative way of accomplishing this. Reiser has its own tool for accomplishing this,
GParted Live CD is another popular tool for this.

E xa m p l e s o f t h i r d -p a r t y u t i l i t i e s

N a me L i n k to th e T o o l

DFSee http://www.dfsee.com/dfsee/index.php

EASEUS
Partition http://www.partition-tool.com/
Manager

GParted
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
LiveCD

Partition
http://partitionlogic.org.uk/
Logic

Paragon
Partition http://www.partition-manager.com/
Manager

System
Rescue http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
CD

If you are using the Windows DiskPart utility, it can only extend (expand) data
Windows
volumes. If you use the DiskPart utility to extend a system or boot volume, you
DiskPart
may get an error. For more information about extending partitions with the
utility
DiskPart utility.

N o te s :

• VMware does not endorse or recommend any particular third party utility, nor is the
above list meant to be exhaustive.

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Additional Information

• VMware command line utilities used to resize virtual disks do not touch the data or
partitions inside the virtual disks. Any desired partition changes must be made from the
virtual machine's operating system.

• Growing a File System on a Logical Volume

• Extend a data volume in Windows

• THE CONTENT OF THIS ARTICLE IS PROVIDED "AS-IS," AND TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED
BY APPLICABLE LAW, VMWARE DISCLAIMS ALL OTHER REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS CONTENT, INCLUDING THEIR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE, THEIR MERCHANTABILITY, OR THEIR NONINFRINGEMENT. VMWARE SHALL NOT BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OF THIS
CONTENT, INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, LOSS OF BUSINESS
PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF VMWARE HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES.

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