Question

388

How do I increase the hard disk size of the virtual machine?

rated 0 times [ 388] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 787028 / 1 Year ago, mon, december 26, 2022, 1:00:35

enter image description here

I have run out of space on my WinXP virtual machine, which I only gave 10 GB space for when I created it. Is there an easy way to increase it to, say, 20 GB? I can't see any obvious option in VirtualBox settings.

The suggestion below gives this error

wim@wim-ubuntu:/media/data/winxp_vm$ VBoxManage modifyhd wim.vdi --resize 20000

VBoxManage: error: Cannot register the hard disk '/media/data/winxp_vm/wim.vdi' {46284957-2c09-4e70-8a49-bfbe0f7f681d} because a hard disk '/home/wim/VirtualBox VMs/winxp_vm/wim.vdi' with UUID {46284957-2c09-4e70-8a49-bfbe0f7f681d} already exists

VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0x80070057), component VirtualBox, interface IVirtualBox, callee nsISupports

Context: "OpenMedium(Bstr(pszFilenameOrUuid).raw(), enmDevType, AccessMode_ReadWrite, fForceNewUuidOnOpen, pMedium.asOutParam())" at line 210 of file VBoxManageDisk.cpp

Removing the .vdi from VirtualBox before calling VBoxManage command, then adding it back in, was successful. But now I can't boot the virtual machine, I get this worrying screen:

enter image description here

By the way, it says FATAL: Could not read from the boot medium! System halted.

The vdi must be reattached to the VM after VBoxManage command. Further, the partition will need to be resized from WITHIN windows, because you will have this empty space:

enter image description here

I was able to resize the partition easily using a bit of freeware called EASEUS Partition Master 9.1.0 Home Edition.

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

atereress

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 79

Total Questions: 106

Total Answers: 119

Location: Federated States of Micronesia

Member since Sun, May 16, 2021

3 Years ago

atereress questions

1 GU603HM: Setting 165hz in desktop Linux distro looks like 60hz

Fri, Jan 27, 23, 02:54, 1 Year ago

1 ./bash: No such file or directory

Wed, Aug 4, 21, 03:15, 3 Years ago

1 Ubuntu 20.04 - can't upload Arduino's sketch

Sat, Apr 16, 22, 17:34, 2 Years ago

1 How to force fsck on reboot for Ubuntu 20.04

Thu, Dec 22, 22, 05:56, 1 Year ago

1 Is there a cursor theme that looks like a laser pointer?

Sun, May 15, 22, 15:59, 2 Years ago

View All

answered 1 Year ago lassrake · Accepted Answer

Since VirtualBox 6, you can use the GUI, as per lenooh's answer.

Otherwise, open a terminal and navigate to the folder with the VirtualBox disk image, then use the following command:

VBoxManage modifyhd YOUR_HARD_DISK.vdi --resize SIZE_IN_MB

replacing YOUR_HARD_DISK and SIZE_IN_MB with your image name and desired size. sudo might be necessary in some machines or you might encounter an error. This answer and a fuller explanation are here, on webupd8. Credit to Andrew there for posting this answer.

After resizing, the extra virtual hard drive space needs to be partitioned and formatted for the guest to use it. This can be done with gparted by booting the guest from a live ISO. We can also resize the existing partition using gparted. For this we may need to disable /swap and create a new swap partition.

In case if VBoxManage is not found in your system, just set the path to:

set PATH=%PATH%;"C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBox"

and it should resolve path issue. Do make sure VBoxManage is present at this path before setting it.