>I'm not talking about shrinking the size of the VHD file, I know how to do
>that. What I want to know is if there is a way to reduce the size of the hard
>drive created inside a VPC. I'm running XP Pro in a VPC and I have a lot of
>extra hard drive space. I want to reduce the size of the HD from a 60 GB hard
>drive to a 30GB HD. I'm sure once that's done I could shrink the VHD but
>right now the VHD is shrunk as much as it will shrink using the established
>methods.
>This would be like shrinking the size of a HD on a physical machine. Is
>there any way to do it without just starting over and creating a new VHD with
>a smaller HD size and reinstalling XP and apps into it all over again?

> I'm not talking about shrinking the size of the VHD file, I know how to do
> that. What I want to know is if there is a way to reduce the size of the hard
> drive created inside a VPC. I'm running XP Pro in a VPC and I have a lot of
> extra hard drive space. I want to reduce the size of the HD from a 60 GB hard
> drive to a 30GB HD. I'm sure once that's done I could shrink the VHD but
> right now the VHD is shrunk as much as it will shrink using the established
> methods.
> This would be like shrinking the size of a HD on a physical machine. Is
> there any way to do it without just starting over and creating a new VHD with
> a smaller HD size and reinstalling XP and apps into it all over again?

> JonathanL wrote:
> > I'm not talking about shrinking the size of the VHD file, I know how to do
> > that. What I want to know is if there is a way to reduce the size of the hard
> > drive created inside a VPC. I'm running XP Pro in a VPC and I have a lot of
> > extra hard drive space. I want to reduce the size of the HD from a 60 GB hard
> > drive to a 30GB HD. I'm sure once that's done I could shrink the VHD but
> > right now the VHD is shrunk as much as it will shrink using the established
> > methods.
> > This would be like shrinking the size of a HD on a physical machine. Is
> > there any way to do it without just starting over and creating a new VHD with
> > a smaller HD size and reinstalling XP and apps into it all over again?
>
> Hi Jonathan,
>
> As far as I know, the only way to do it is to create the
> 'smaller' VHD, then use an application like Ghost to do a
> image copy from the original VHD to the new VHD.
>
> Sincerely,
> C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T
>
> CSD Computer Services
>
> Web site: http://csdcs.site90.net/
> E-mail: (email address - cut out)
>

>I looks like that's what I'm going to need to do. I probably don't understand
>VM technology as well as I need to. When I created the new VM and installed
>XP, I told it to partition and create a HD of 60GB. Now I see this was way
>too big and not needed.
>
>If I created another VM, installed XP, and during the install told it to
>partition or create a HD of 30GB, would the resulting VHD file be any smaller
>than the one I have with the 60GB HD? Or does that not make any difference,
>and the only thing that actually affects the size of the VHD file is all of
>the apps and data that you install in the guest OS of the VHD?
>
>Jonathan
>

> I'm not talking about shrinking the size of the VHD file, I know how to do
> that. What I want to know is if there is a way to reduce the size of the
> hard
> drive created inside a VPC. I'm running XP Pro in a VPC and I have a lot
> of
> extra hard drive space. I want to reduce the size of the HD from a 60 GB
> hard
> drive to a 30GB HD. I'm sure once that's done I could shrink the VHD but
> right now the VHD is shrunk as much as it will shrink using the
> established
> methods.
> This would be like shrinking the size of a HD on a physical machine. Is
> there any way to do it without just starting over and creating a new VHD
> with
> a smaller HD size and reinstalling XP and apps into it all over again?

> On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:37:03 -0800, JonathanL
> <(email address - cut out)> wrote:
> >
> >"C.Joseph Drayton" wrote:
> >
> >> JonathanL wrote:
> >> > I'm not talking about shrinking the size of the VHD file, I know how to do
> >> > that. What I want to know is if there is a way to reduce the size of the hard
> >> > drive created inside a VPC. I'm running XP Pro in a VPC and I have a lot of
> >> > extra hard drive space. I want to reduce the size of the HD from a 60 GB hard
> >> > drive to a 30GB HD. I'm sure once that's done I could shrink the VHD but
> >> > right now the VHD is shrunk as much as it will shrink using the established
> >> > methods.
> >> > This would be like shrinking the size of a HD on a physical machine. Is
> >> > there any way to do it without just starting over and creating a new VHD with
> >> > a smaller HD size and reinstalling XP and apps into it all over again?
> >>
> >> Hi Jonathan,
> >>
> >> As far as I know, the only way to do it is to create the
> >> 'smaller' VHD, then use an application like Ghost to do a
> >> image copy from the original VHD to the new VHD.
> >>
> >> Sincerely,
> >> C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T
> >>
>
> >I looks like that's what I'm going to need to do. I probably don't understand
> >VM technology as well as I need to. When I created the new VM and installed
> >XP, I told it to partition and create a HD of 60GB. Now I see this was way
> >too big and not needed.
>
> Wrong conclusion! See below.
>
> >
> >If I created another VM, installed XP, and during the install told it to
> >partition or create a HD of 30GB, would the resulting VHD file be any smaller
> >than the one I have with the 60GB HD? Or does that not make any difference,
> >and the only thing that actually affects the size of the VHD file is all of
> >the apps and data that you install in the guest OS of the VHD?
> >
> >Jonathan
>
> If you used the defaults when you created the virtual machine you
> would have gotten a "dynamically expanding" type of VHD for your disk
> data. What this means is that it is internally configured for 60 Gb
> *max* storage of guest data, but the VHD file itself is initially very
> small.
> When you install the operating system in the guest the VHD file
> expands in size to accommodate the extra data to store.
> As you then work on your guest machine and add yet more data and
> applications the VHD file expands on the host file system.
> But all the time when you check the drive from within the guest it
> will be reportted as a 60 Gb hard disk, which is only utilized at a
> low percentage.
>
> As you may now understand there is absolutely no reason to do what you
> are asking here. It will not benefit you at all!
> If you make a dynamically expanding drive of 30 Gb the VHD file will
> initially be exactly the same size as a 60Gb VHD would be. After you
> have installed the operating system they will still be the same size.
> The only difference is that once you approach 30 Gb of data the
> smaller VHD will max out and you *must* migrate to a bigger drive,
> whereas the 60Gb drive is only half full. But in both cases the VHD
> file on the host is the same size....
>
> --
>
> Bo Berglund (Sweden)
>

>Thank you one and all. Now I think I understand it. I was hoping that I could
>somehow shrink the VHD file more than what I have using the steps outlined
>elsewhere, but I can see what I have is as good as it gets. The C: drive in
>the XP guest says it's using 10.7GB and the VHD file is 11.9GB after
>shrinking (it was 16GB). In order to reduce the VHD file more, I'd have to
>delete apps and/or data and then go through the shrink process again. I just
>thought I was missing something trick, but I'm not. Thanks again!
>
>Jonathan
>

> On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:30:08 -0800, JonathanL
> <(email address - cut out)> wrote:
>
> >Thank you one and all. Now I think I understand it. I was hoping that I could
> >somehow shrink the VHD file more than what I have using the steps outlined
> >elsewhere, but I can see what I have is as good as it gets. The C: drive in
> >the XP guest says it's using 10.7GB and the VHD file is 11.9GB after
> >shrinking (it was 16GB). In order to reduce the VHD file more, I'd have to
> >delete apps and/or data and then go through the shrink process again. I just
> >thought I was missing something trick, but I'm not. Thanks again!
> >
> >Jonathan
> >
> You might be able to reduce the size of the VHD on your physical hard
> disk by using NTFS compression. This usually results in a 40 to 60%
> compression...essentially halving the disk space used.
>
> --
> Cheers,
> Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
> http://vpc.essjae.com/
>

>
>"C.Joseph Drayton" wrote:
>
>> JonathanL wrote:
>> > I'm not talking about shrinking the size of the VHD file, I know how to do
>> > that. What I want to know is if there is a way to reduce the size of the hard
>> > drive created inside a VPC. I'm running XP Pro in a VPC and I have a lot of
>> > extra hard drive space. I want to reduce the size of the HD from a 60 GB hard
>> > drive to a 30GB HD. I'm sure once that's done I could shrink the VHD but
>> > right now the VHD is shrunk as much as it will shrink using the established
>> > methods.
>> > This would be like shrinking the size of a HD on a physical machine. Is
>> > there any way to do it without just starting over and creating a new VHD with
>> > a smaller HD size and reinstalling XP and apps into it all over again?
>>
>> Hi Jonathan,
>>
>> As far as I know, the only way to do it is to create the
>> 'smaller' VHD, then use an application like Ghost to do a
>> image copy from the original VHD to the new VHD.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T
>>
>I looks like that's what I'm going to need to do. I probably don't understand
>VM technology as well as I need to. When I created the new VM and installed
>XP, I told it to partition and create a HD of 60GB. Now I see this was way
>too big and not needed.
>
>If I created another VM, installed XP, and during the install told it to
>partition or create a HD of 30GB, would the resulting VHD file be any smaller
>than the one I have with the 60GB HD? Or does that not make any difference,
>and the only thing that actually affects the size of the VHD file is all of
>the apps and data that you install in the guest OS of the VHD?
>
>Jonathan