bergquistcompany
asked on
Windows 2008 R2 VM on ESXi host needs to extend C drive. What are the steps in VM and OS?
Hello EE,
I have a VM that is Windows 2008 with a 30GB C: drive and this is just too small.
I need to extend it and I'm thinking I likely need to turn it off and extend the C: drive in the VM Settings? I"ve never done it so am wondering if somebody has step by step instructions and then when I boot up what to do in the OS?
I have a VM that is Windows 2008 with a 30GB C: drive and this is just too small.
I need to extend it and I'm thinking I likely need to turn it off and extend the C: drive in the VM Settings? I"ve never done it so am wondering if somebody has step by step instructions and then when I boot up what to do in the OS?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
see my EE Article, Step by Step Tutorial Instructions with Screenshots
HOW TO: Resize a VMware (VMDK) Virtual Disk
HOW TO: Resize a VMware (VMDK) Virtual Disk
ASKER
it is greyed out though (see attached)
Capture.JPG
Capture.JPG
There may be locked files on the drive, which is why it is greyed out. In this case you will need to power down the VM and then from there make your changes in vSphere to the VM. Boot the VM up and perform the windows extend using disk management.
Will.
Will.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Ahhh, missed that one. Good catch Andrew!
ASKER
My bad I was going to make a snapshot before doing this but I'll remove and try again.
Make sure you have a FULL BACKUP, not a snapshot, as a backup, before you mangle your partitions! (as per my Article!)
ASKER
Thanks for the excellent guidance!
-on the VM Edit Settings
-click on the hard drive and change the value from 30 to X GB (X being the size you want to have the drive)
-apply the settings
-login to the windows machine
-open diskmgmt.msc (disk management)
-beside the C drive you should see "unallocated space"
-right click the C drive and click extend
-click next to confirm
-the drive will extend
You can verify this is disk management and also under windows explorer as well.
Will.