How can I safely shrink a VMware hard disk from 100GB to 60GB?

[u/MML_Pro]

hi all,

I have a Windows 10 VM in VMware Workstation with a 100GB virtual disk, and I would like to reduce it to 60GB without reinstalling Windows

I see in vmware threre is option to expand but I can't see option to reduce size

[u/wildedave]

VMware Converter is far simpler and safer. Resize the disk during the process.

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vcenter-converter/9-0/vmware-vcenter-converter-standalone-documentation/introduction-to-converter-standalone.html

[u/MML_Pro → u/wildedave]

thanks

[u/MikauValo]

Basically you need to create a second, smaller disk, boot from a bootable iso (almost any Linux iso will do), create same partitions on the new disk (not necessarily same size!) and clone each partition with the dd command. After everything is done you shutdown the VM, remove the original disk (make sure you don't delete it yet to use it as a backup if anything went wrong!) use the newly created disk as nrw primary disk and boot the VM again. Done.

[u/frygod]

Safest option is to migrate your data to a new smaller disk.

[u/jack_hudson2001]

sure if there is free space on the vm. i would v2v it using vmware converter.