VMs have 2 TB non-expandable drive

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Windows VMs have vmdks presented larger than 2 TB but cannot expand the drive in guest OS.

Environment

ESXi (all versions)

Windows guest OS

Cause

Guest OS is using MBR partitioning on disks. MBR supports a maximum of 2 TB drives.

Microsoft documents list requirements for disks larger than 2 TB

Resolution

The in guest operating system and disk partitioning is outside of VMware by Broadcom support scope.

You may try the following methods to work around the problem:

• Work with Microsoft to convert the MBR to GPT if possible.
• Create a second vmdk attached to the VM and configure with GPT partition before copying data to this new disk in guest.