How to shrink a Windows XP VMWare Fusion virtual machine

virtualizationvmware

Is it possible to shrink a VM Ware Fusion Virtual Machine, and if so how? Specifically a Windows XP guest/client?

I've found old references to procedures purported to make this possible, but they reference a VM Ware DiskTool that appears to no longer be available.

Best Answer

In VMWare Fusion 3. There are 2 parts

Prerequisites are the VM cannot have any snapshots and the virtual disk does not have a preallocated size. Making virtual disk sparse

Clean up Windows

I would then in Windows run the MS Disk Cleanup tool to remove files and then Disk Defragmentor to put all the space in one place.

VMWare tools includes a shrink disk command

Then power off the VM

Clean up the virtual disk

Search for Clean Up a Hard Disk in Fusion's help

1 From the VMware Fusion menu bar, select Window > Virtual Machine Library.
2 Click the thumbnail of the virtual machine and click Settings at the bottom of the library window.
3 Under Removable Devices in the Settings window, select Hard Disks.
4 In the Hard Disks panel, select the hard disk in the source list.
5 Click Clean Up Disk in the Disk Cleanup section.

VMware Fusion displays a progress dialog as it cleans up the virtual disk.