I'm having an issue with a virtual machine that's using a VHDX disk. Despite expanding the disk size, the VM is still showing as completely full, and users are getting error messages about insufficient disk space when they try to save files. It seems like the disk expands fine for smaller files, but I'm wondering if there's a way to ensure that the VHDX keeps a larger cushion of free space. I did have to remove the Windows recovery partition to resize the main partition, and I followed [these instructions](https://blog.danielburrowes.com/2024/01/remove-windows-10-recovery-partition.html) to do that. Any advice would be appreciated!
3 Answers
It sounds like you're dealing with a thin-provisioned disk. These dynamically expanding disks only grow as you actually use them, but they have a maximum limit. Check if your maximum size is set too low! If you've resized the VHDX, you'll still need to expand the partition inside the VM to see the added space.
Did you make sure to expand the partitions as well? Extending the VHDX only makes the space look bigger in the guest OS; you also need to adjust the partition layout itself. Otherwise, it’ll still be stuck at its original size!
I tried to expand the disk on the VM, but the option was greyed out. Any idea why that might be?
That’s strange, I haven’t encountered this issue before. Why not consider switching to a thick-provisioned or static VHD? It would avoid these problems altogether.
Since this VM was set up before I started, there's no reason we can't change it. Is there a way to convert it to a fixed disk without losing any data?
The drive should have a lot of extra space; the file I'm trying to upload is nowhere near 800GB!