>I am currently using differencing disks which works fine but one problem
>is that the .vhd files is growing a lot (for example I have one which
>has really not much installed on it other than swap file compared to the
>base disk and the vhd has grown to 3.4 GB) and I don't see any options
>to shrink a differencing vhd disk (only merging is available). Note I am
>talking about the "final" differencing file not the parent file.
>
>Any way to shrink the VHD when using differencing disks?
>
>Looks like using differencing disks will not save me much diskspace
>(limited because I am using a laptop, however I have got an external
>drive so not that much problem anymore. Still nice to save some space so
>I don't need to bring the external drive "on the road") in the end.
>
>Probably best option is maybe to use merge and individual vhds not using
>differencing disks, at least for my more often used VHDs.
>
>It is still nice to use differential disks when you need to setup a new
>environment (instead of having to copy a 10+ GB vdh file).
>
>Another question regarding differencing disks. What happens if you move
>the location of the base disk (guess the path to base disk is stored in
>the vhd)?

> No way to shrink differencing disks without merging.
>
> When you move the base, and then try to start the VM, you'll be
> prompted for the location of the base image.