Vista - how can I make a VHD bigger?

Config: VPC2007 running on an XP/SP3 host.

I've got a VHD with Debian Linux 5.0 on it and it's running out of disk
space. It complained (within Linux) that I didn't have enough space for
an operation. I've made copies of the VHD and tried changing it with the
virtual disk wizard but all I can do is switch between it being a fixed
size disk and a dynamic sized drive. It was originally a dynamic sized
drive but I imagine part of the VPC mechanism for auto-expanding when
needed is based on Windows rather than Linux. So it's probably not auto
expanding like it should. So I thought, no problem, I'll convert it to a
fixed size using the Virtual Disk wizard. I could do that, but at no
time was I asked how big I wanted the fixed size disk to be. It just
converted it and left it the same size.

help...

On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:32:57 +0200, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com>
wrote:
A dynamically expanding disk only expands to the limit you set when
you created it.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

jorgensen wrote:Thanks, I looked into that and it said it only works on VHDs that have
Win2K, XP or Vista installed on them. As for creating a second hard
disk, are you talking about a brand new one? Or a second disk that can
be linked to the original VHD? I'm a total noob inside Linux, so
anything (no matter how simple it seems to a Linux user) is totally
weird to me.

I think I might need to get my employers MIS department to make me a
brand new VHD.

On Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:26:43 +0200, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com>
wrote:
You could shut down the VM, then create a 2nd (new) VHD to use as a
secondary disk for your data, files, etc.

Ultimately, it might be easier to just start over with a new larger
hard drive. It really depends on how you want to spend your time,
messing around expanding disks, or just a reinstall of the OS and
files.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/

On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:32:57 +0200, d d <go_on_try_and_sp@xxxxxx_me.com>
wrote:
You will need a disk utility inside Linux to handle the disk space
problem, after this simple proposal (at step 3):

1) Using the disk wizard, create a new dynamically expanding disk and
(*IMPORTANT*) set it to a really *big* size! It won't be big on the
host system at all, but now it can expand to hold all that data as
time goes by.

2) With the Linux guest shut down completely go into the Settings for
it in the VPC console and activate hard disk #2 and point it to the
new virtual disk file you made in step 1.

3) Now start up Linux again and inside Linux partition and format the
new disk. Then *move* some considerable chunks of data off the
existing drives onto the new drive, still using the Linux tools.
In the future use the new drive for all new data and you will be fine.

I have been deliberately vague concerning the Linux disk tools to use
since I don't know anything about Debian 5, but you can find out
yourself easily enough...

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Steve Jain [MVP] wrote:Thanks for the replies all. So there's no really easy way to do it. I've
asked my MIS department to build me a brand new VM.