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→Performing the Virtual Disk Type Conversion
VMware Server supports both ''growable'' and ''pre-allocated'' virtual disks. In addition, the disks can be specified to be contained in a single file, or divided into multiple 2GB files.
The virtual disk type is defined at the point that the disk is created. Whilst this is generally not a problem, VMware Server does not support the shrinking of pre-allocated virtual disks. Before a pre-allocated disk can be reduced in size, therefore, it is necessary to first convert it to a ''growable'' disk. This can be performed using the Virtual Disk Manager tool ('''vmware-vdiskmanager''').
== The vmware-vdiskmanager tool ==
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== Performing the Virtual Disk Type Conversion ==
The vmware-vdiskmanager command requires a number of arugments perform a virtual disk type conversion. The syntax for a type conversion is as follows:
vmware-vdiskmanager -r ''<oldfilename>.vmdk'' -t ''<type> <newfilename>.vmdk''
where ''<oldfilename>.vmdk'' is the name of the virtual disk image file to be converted, ''<type>'' is the number from the above table indicating the target virtual disk type, and ''<newfilename>.vmdk'' is the name of the new, converted file.
For example, to convert a virtual disk image file called ''win2008-1_2.vmdk'' to a growable disk called ''new.vmdk'' the following command would need to be executed:
<pre>
Virtual disk conversion successful.
</pre>
Once the conversion is completed, the virtual machine will need to be configured to use the converted disk, or the new disk renamed to have the name of the original disk.
