Shrinking a virtual disk using scripts in VMware Fusion

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article provides the steps to shrink a virtual disk in VMware Fusion 5.x, 6.x and 7.x using scripts.

Notes:

• The VMware Tools user interface inside the virtual machine in Fusion 5.x and 6.x no longer has the option to shrink the virtual disk.
• You can also use Clean up Virtual Machine option under Settings > General to shrink the virtual disks.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion 8.x

Resolution

Shrinking the virtual disk in a Windows virtual machine

To shrink the virtual disk in a Windows virtual machine:

1. Power on the Windows virtual machine.
2. Open a Command Prompt with administrator privileges.
3. Run these commands:
   
   cd C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools
   
   C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools> VMwareToolboxCmd help disk
   
   This displays a list of options that are available for shrinking.
   
   For example:
   C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools>VMwareToolboxCmd.exe disk shrink c:\

Please disregard any warnings about disk space for the duration of shrink process.
Progress: 100 [===========>]

Disk shrinking complete.

Shrinking the virtual disk in a Linux virtual machine

To shrink the virtual disk in a Linux virtual machine:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Run these commands:
   
   cd /usr/bin
   
   /usr/bin$ vmware-toolbox-cmd help disk

Shrinking the virtual disk in a Mac OS X virtual machine

To shrink the virtual disk in a Mac OS X virtual machine:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Run these commands:
   
   cd /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools
   
   ./vmware-tools-cli help disk

Note: To perform a normal shrink operation, use the shrink only option.

Run all the commands after logging in to the virtual machine (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).