Nestor Sulikowski

This blog describes several procedures related to Virtual PC / VirtualBox Hard Drives.

How to compact VHD files

• Follow this: http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/compact-virtual-pc-disk/
• or this:

1. Defragment the disk of the guest machine.
2. Run precompact.zip (it’ll zero out free space)
3. Use Virtual Disk Assistant to reclaim space

Using Differencing Disks

Differencing works great when it comes to backing up these big files!

• Read: http://dotnet.org.za/matt/pages/2413.aspx

Resizing VHD

• Read: http://kb.dutchalps.com/microsoftvirtualpc.htm

Resizing VDI

VDI files are hard drives for Virtual Box. To resize one:

1. Create a second disk (VirtualBox Manager)
2. Mount and reboot from clonezilla iso (G:\Internetdownloads\Utils\clonezilla\clonezilla-live-1.2.3-27.iso)
3. Close from disk 0 to 1
4. Release your old virtual drive and set your newer, bigger virtual drive as the primary hard disk
5. Mount and reboot from gparted iso (G:\Internetdownloads\Utils\gparted\gparted-live-0.5.1-1.iso)
6. Resize partition