Vista - Changing size of Virtual PC 2007 hard disk

VPC 2007 uses a "dynamically expanding hard disk"

Mine is dynamically doing nothing. out of space.



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On Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:57:05 GMT, "kselman"<kselman@xxxxxx> wrote:
Yes.
With 3rd party tools, VHD Resizer comes to mind.
Ghost, Acronis, etc. There are dozens of threads that already exist
for this.
It doesn't have to as there are other options for VHDs, but you, the
user control the maximum size it can grow to. It's a very common
newbie mistake to make a 4GB VHD and then realize you have no space
for anything after you install the OS.
A dynamically expanding drive will only expand the smaller limit of
either
1. the maximum size limit you specified when you created it (if you
created a 4GB dynamically expanding disk, it won't grow beyond 4GB)
or
2. the available space on the local physical hard drive where the VHD
is located (you need to have real space available for the virtual
drive)


--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/
I do not work for Microsoft.

"Steve Jain" <noreply.-@-.essjae.com> wrote in message
news:1vam94lqmhjvegibh3liv82cstc1h3jd5e@xxxxxxNo you don't. You can edit the virtual HDD from within VPC.......

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 18:53:46 +0100, "Gordon"
<gordonbparker@xxxxxx> wrote:
I think that the OP would be disappointed with editing the disk from
within VPC. The only edit actions possible are:
- Compact the disk (to save space on the host)
- Convert dynamically expanding to fixed (thus wasting space on host)
None of the above will make the disk bigger to the guest operating
system...

--
Bo Berglund

On Thu, 7 Aug 2008 18:53:46 +0100, "Gordon"
<gordonbparker@xxxxxx> wrote:
Really, and how do you make an existing VHD bigger with the VPC Disk
Wizard?

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/
I do not work for Microsoft.

I have this same problem. I think it is a bug in Virtual PC 2007.
Virtual PC 2007 has a disk type called "Dynamically expanding". I
chose this disk type assuming that the VHD would dynamically expand.
Unfortunately it does not. I then hoped that I could use the Hard
Disk 2 to add more space, but that also does not add more space. The
bug in Virtual PC 2007 is that the names of the features and the
documentation lead you to believe that you don't have to worry a lot
about your disk space needs because there are ways to get larger
disks, but the reality is that there is not. This appears to be
intentionally deceptive marketing.

The solution appears to be to just rebuild the image. Or maybe to
check out VMWare - which is what I plan to do.

>The solution appears to be to just rebuild the image. Or maybe toVMWare works exactly the same when talking about their virtual disks.

--
Bob Comer



On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:49:15 -0700 (PDT), Rob Kraft
<rob.kraft@xxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:49:15 -0700 (PDT), Rob Kraft
<rob.kraft@xxxxxx> wrote:
There is no bug. You define it's maximum size when you create it and
it will expand until it reaches that limit or you run out of physical
drive space, which ever is the lesser value.
Deceptive marketing? Come on. Read the description of a dynamically
expanding drive in the VPC help!
You can't have an indefinitely expanding virtual hard drive. Find
where it says your drive will expand forever.

From the VPC help:
Dynamically expanding
The size of the virtual hard disk expands as data is written to it.
The initial size is typically less than 100 KB, but as data is written
"the disk size will expand until it reaches the limit specified when
the disk was created. "

Because the disk expands dynamically, and the virtual hard disk is

"constrained by the amount of actual space on the physical computer's
hard disk, there is no guarantee that space will be available."

Virtual PC will monitor the available hard disk space on the physical
computer and notify you if the dynamic disk starts to approach the
limits of available space on the physical computer. By default, the
New Virtual Machine Wizard creates virtual hard disks of this type.

How is that deceptive, it's clearly written.
VM Ware's expanding drives have the same limitation, they do not have
an infintely expanding virtual hard drive either. You would need to
resize the disk in a similar way you would to a VPC disk.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/
I do not work for Microsoft.

"Rob Kraft" <rob.kraft@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:c20c04e6-8503-4d4a-b6d3-4eda31e3c626@xxxxxx
No it isn't.
That's right.
It will - until it reaches the limit that you set for it.
You can't possibly have thought that a virtual hard disk would expand
infinitely - surely not...
No - the fact is that you didn't read the documentation, which clearly
states:
"the disk size will expand until it reaches the limit specified when the
disk was created."
You'll find that VMWare (and all other virtualisation software) behaves in
exactly the same way - how could it be otherwise...?


--
Mark Rae
ASP.NET MVP
http://www.markrae.net