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kenwilcox/vmdk-shrink.md

Last active August 29, 2015 14:07
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How to properly shrink the VMWare disk image
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vmdk-shrink.md

I know this is found online, This Gist is so I can easily find it.

  • Delete any Snapshots
  • In a terminal of the guest OS type:
  cat /dev/zero > whipefile; rm whipefile
  # That command fills the disk with zeros, once full it removes the file - This can take some time
  • From the terminal of the host OS type:
  vmware-vdiskmanager -k <full path to vmdk>
  # Example OSX
  /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/vmware-vdiskmanager -k /Users/me/Documents/Virtual\ Machines/Mac\ OS\ X\ 10.10.vmwarevm/Virtual\ Disk.vmdk
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