Your virtual machine is running out of space and you need to increase the available space in the same disk drive not add another one.
You can easily do that in a couple of steps: 1) expand the virtual hard disk itself. 2) grow the file system of your partition to utilize the new added space.
1) To expand the vhd first shut down the machine then from its settings, choose the hard drive you want to expand and click Edit (Edit button will be disabled if the machine is running). The wizard below appears
Now you have expanded the vhd, start the machine again to grow the file system
2) Resizing the file system depends on what type it is and the OS you are running.
Unlike 2003, Windows Server 2008 allows you to extend even the system/boot volume without any 3rd party applications if the free space is right after it
To extend the volume, go to Disk Management from the Server Manager, right click the partition and choose Extend Volume.
Complete the wizard as below.
You can easily do that in a couple of steps: 1) expand the virtual hard disk itself. 2) grow the file system of your partition to utilize the new added space.
1) To expand the vhd first shut down the machine then from its settings, choose the hard drive you want to expand and click Edit (Edit button will be disabled if the machine is running). The wizard below appears
Choose the Expand Action
Enter the new disk size
Finish the wizard
Now you have expanded the vhd, start the machine again to grow the file system
2) Resizing the file system depends on what type it is and the OS you are running.
Unlike 2003, Windows Server 2008 allows you to extend even the system/boot volume without any 3rd party applications if the free space is right after it
To extend the volume, go to Disk Management from the Server Manager, right click the partition and choose Extend Volume.
Complete the wizard as below.
Now you can use the added free space
Thank you so much, Ayman. I had expanded the disk space on vmWare environment but got stuck on the disk expansion. Your steps and screenshots are clear and concise.
ReplyDeleteHowever, before you give the instructions to extend the volume you need to include instructions on rescan the disk like this: "Go to the right panel and select More Actions, then "Rescan disks"."
Once again, thank you.