How to Resize Virtual Hard Disk Safely and Effectively in 2024

Updated By

Tracy King 

Written By

Sherly 

Last Updated on April 22, 2024

On this page, you will learn how to resize a virtual hard disk with the help of the tools: Partition Master, Hyper-V, VMware, and Gparted:

Before we explore the four solutions, let's understand virtual disks.

Can I resize the virtual hard disk?

Certainly. A virtual hard disk is a disk image file format used to store the contents of a computer hard drive.

A disk image, sometimes also referred to as a virtual machine (VM), is a replica of an existing hard drive, including all its data and structural elements. It can be stored anywhere accessible by the host computer and is portable, meaning it can be stored and transferred on a USB flash drive, for example. Users can resize the virtual disk as needed with the appropriate tools.

Next up, we just need the American English translation for this:

This article will detail how to resize a virtual disk using standard tools. If you're planning on resizing a virtual hard drive, read on.

How to Resize a Virtual Hard Disk – 4 Tools

In this section, you'll learn how to use four common tools to resize your virtual disk. There are both third-party utilities and tools bundled with Windows, so choose the one that best fits your needs and comfort level with computers, as some of these tools require a basic understanding of how computers work. Let's start with the easiest one.

Method 1: Resize Virtual Hard Disk with Partition Master

AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is an incredibly user-friendly tool that you can download onto your virtual machine. With just a few clicks, you can easily resize partitions on your virtual hard drive. Plus, it doesn't require extensive computer knowledge, so even if you're a beginner, you can follow the prompts and get the job done effortlessly. Go ahead, download it now, and install it on your virtual machine.

Next, follow the instructions below to expand your virtual hard disk.

Step 1: Locate and select the target drive/partition

Run Partition Master, enter Partition Management, select the hard disk/partition you want to resize, right click and choose “Resize/Move”.

Select the partition to resize/move:

1. To shrink the partition, simply drag one of the endpoints into the unallocated free space. Click “OK” when you're done.

2. To extend a partition, you need unallocated space next to it (if you don't have any, follow the steps above to create some). Again, drag the mouse over the unallocated space and click "OK."

3. To move a partition, you need unallocated space next to it. If there isn't any, free some up first.

Right-click the partition you want to move, and select “Resize/Move.” Drag the entire partition to the left or right to adjust its position. Click “OK” to confirm.

Step 3: Review the results and apply the changes

Here you will see the new disk partition information and图表.

The partition information after resizing

To save the changes, click the Run Task button, and then click Apply.

Other features of Partition Master:

• Resize Encrypted Partition
• Wipe Hard Drive Before Selling
• Merge Partitions on USB Drive
• Move Unallocated Space to C Drive / D Drive
• Delete/Extend/Shrink/Create or Move Partitions

As an efficient partition manager, it can help solve many disk problems. Download and have a try.

Method 2: Resize the Virtual Hard Disk through VMware

Surprisingly, you can add disks to a VMware Workstation virtual machine and grow the size of virtual disks without having to touch the physical disk, all through the VMware Workstation GUI (graphical user interface).

Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1: Open VMware Workstation, and then under “Devices,” select your hard drive.

Step 2: Click on your hard drive. On the right, click the Expand button to proceed. If the Expand button is grayed out, it's because of a snapshot containing the volume you want to expand. Just delete the snapshot, and you'll be able to proceed.

Step 3: Specify the maximum size for the virtual hard disk and click Extend to confirm.

Click the "Extend" button.

4. Click OK to complete the process.

Click OK.

Then, you're done, and your virtual hard drive is resized.

Method 3: Resize the Virtual Hard Disk with GParted

GParted is a free and feature-rich disk partition manager for Linux. With it, you can delete, create, copy, resize, move, or label partitions with different file systems.

This section will guide you through the process of using it to resize your virtual hard drive. You'll use the GParted Live CD to adjust the partition sizes within your virtual machine – booting the GParted ISO image in your VM will launch you into a Linux Live environment with the GParted partition editor, allowing you to expand partitions on your virtual hard drive.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Load the ISO file into the virtual machine by accessing the virtual machine's settings window. Select the virtual CD drive and browse to the ISO file on your computer.

Step 3: Type a number in the New Size field, or slide the marker to the right.

Step 4. Type in a number for “Maximum Size,” then click “Resize/Move” to confirm the changes.

Step 5: Tap the top icon to save your changes and wait for the process to finish.

Click the green checkmark button.

After resizing, restart the virtual machine and remove the GParted ISO file. Windows will scan the file system on the virtual machine to make sure everything is okay — don't interrupt this check.

Method 4: Resize the Virtual Hard Disk through Hyper-V

Hyper-V also allows administrators to resize virtual hard disks online. However, note that this feature is only supported in Server 2012 R2 and later. Therefore, you can't perform this operation on VMs running Windows Server 2012 or earlier.

Prerequisites you should be familiar with:

1. It must be a SCSI controller. 2. The format must be VHDX, which is the Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format. 3. Get a user account and ensure that it is a member of the local Hyper-V Administrators group. 4. You must have a computer running Windows Server 2012 R2 or later with the Hyper-V role installed.

After you've reviewed the prerequisites, proceed with the instructions to resize the virtual hard disk.

Step 1: On the Windows Start screen, click the Server Manager option.

Step 2: Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Hyper-V Manager.

Step 3: Right-click the virtual machine under Virtual Machines that contains the VHD you want to extend, and then click Settings. Select the VHD you want to extend.

Click on the hard drive to bring up the settings:

Step 4: Click on Edit to launch the Edit Virtual Hard Disk Wizard. Click Next.

Step 5: Choose whether to “Extend” or “Shrink” the volume, then click “Next.” I'm choosing to “Extend.”

Click to expand or shrink the partition.

Step 6: Enter the disk size that you require, then click Next.

Step 7. Click on “Finish”.

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Above are four methods to expand a virtual hard disk. Remember to avoid data loss when running your virtual machine.

Conclusion

Virtual disks often run out of space, and users need to know how to resize them. This article will show you how to adjust virtual disk size using tools like Partition Master, VMware Workstation, Hyper-V, and Gparted. If you don't have much experience using a computer, it's recommended that you use the Partition Master tool to adjust the disk partition on your virtual disk.

This tool is suitable for all users, no matter how much computer knowledge you have, so you can easily use it to fix your disk issues.

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Resize a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD)

There are a few other issues you might run into when resizing a virtual hard drive. Read on to learn more.

1. How do I resize a VHD disk?

You can resize a VHD disk using the Hyper-V Manager's graphical user interface. Here are the steps: 1. Open Hyper-V Manager: First, ensure that the Hyper-V role is installed and enabled in your Windows operating system. Press `Win + X` and then choose "Windows PowerShell (Admin). 2. Connect to the Hyper-V host: In the left pane of the Hyper-V Manager, click "Connect to Server," enter the name or IP address of your Hyper-V server, and then click "OK." 3. Select the virtual machine: In the middle pane, find and select the virtual machine whose VHD size you want to adjust. 4. Virtual Machine Settings: Right-click on the selected virtual machine and choose "Settings." 5. Select the hard drive: In the "Settings" window, navigate to the "Hardware" section, and then double-click on "Hard Drive" or "IDE Controller" (depending on your virtual machine configuration). 6. Resize the VHD: In the "Hard Drive" properties window, locate the "Virtual hard disk size" or a similar option. Here, you'll see a "Size" field that allows you to modify the VHD capacity. Click the "Extend" or "Change Size" button to increase the disk space. 7. Confirm the operation: The system might prompt you to confirm the expansion of the disk space. After reading the warning message, if everything is correct, click "Yes" or "OK." 8. Shut down and restart the virtual machine: Before resizing the VHD, make sure the virtual machine is shut down. After resizing, restart it so that the operating system recognizes the new disk space. Please note that this is a general guide, and the specific steps may vary depending on your Hyper-V version and environment. Always ensure you have up-to-date disk backups before performing any disk operations to prevent data loss.

Step 1: Select Server Manager, and then select Hyper-V Manager.

Step 2. Locate the target virtual hard disk, then click on "Settings" and choose the VHD you want to resize.

Step 3. Click "Edit" and follow the wizard to adjust the disk size.

2. What is the maximum size of a virtual hard disk?

The maximum size for a virtual hard disk is 2,040 GB. However, any virtual hard disk connected to an IDE controller cannot be larger than 127 GB. To support larger virtual hard disk sizes, connect the virtual hard disk to a SCSI adapter.

The answer is yes – at least in theory. Any Windows operating system running on Hyper-V is running in a virtual machine, and so it will tend to be slower than if it were running directly on the hardware.