Changes

Before beginning this process it is important to understand a few points:

* It is only possible to reduce the size of a virtual disk which was initially configured as ''growable''. ''Pre-allocated'' virtual disks cannot be reduced in size. To shrink the size of a pre-allocated disk it must first be converted to a growable disk (see [[How to Convert a VMware Pre-allocated Virtual Disk to a Growable Virtual Disk]] for steps on how to perform this conversion).

* Shrinking reduces the amount of space a virtual disk currently occupies on the host system. It does not reduce the size of the disk as far as any guest operating systems using the disk are concerned. When more disk space is needed by a guest, VMware increases the size of the virtual disk image to accommodate the guest. This process is repeated in increments as more space is needed until the maximum specified virtual disk size is reached.

== Shrinking a Virtual Disk from the Command Line ==