How to resize a VirtualBox vmdk file

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature-rich, high-performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software.

VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk) is a file format that describes containers for virtual hard disk drives to be used in virtual machines like VMware Workstation or Oracle VirtualBox.

In the earlier post, we have looked at how to install Ubuntu on Oracle VirtualBox.There could be scenarios wherein you would run out of space on Virtualbox and need to resize the virtual image, the following steps would help you to resize the VMDK file.

Add “VirtualBox Installation location” to the Path variable
We are going to use VBoxManage command-line interface to resize the disk. With VBoxManage, you can completely control VirtualBox from the command line of your host operating system. VBoxManage supports all the features that the graphical user interface gives you access to, but it supports a lot more than that.
Image – VBoxManage command
For resizing the disk, first, convert the vmdk file to vdi format using the following command VBoxManage clonehd "ubuntu1864.vmdk" "cloned.vdi" --format vdiHere ubuntu1864.vmdk is the file that we are going to resize & cloned.vdi is intermediate file in vdi format.
Image – Convert the vmdk file to vdi format
Then resize the vdi file to the required size using the following command VBoxManage modifyhd "cloned.vdi" --resize 51200 Here cloned.vdi is an intermediate file in vdi format.
Image – Resize the vdi file to the required size
Next step is to convert the vdi file back to vmdk file using the following command VBoxManage clonehd "cloned.vdi" "ubuntu18641.vmdk" --format vmdkHere ubuntu18641.vmdk is the resultant file & cloned.vdi is intermediate file in vdi format.
Image – convert the vdi file back to vmdk file
Once the conversion and resize is completed, we would need to download GParted Live CD to resize the disk. On your VirtualBox Storage settings, set Gparted Live CD and boot the image.
Image – Set Gparted Live CD and boot the image.
On the GParted boot screen, choose default settings.
Image – choose default settings.
Resize the disk using the slider per your needs.
Image – Resize the disk
Choose ‘Apply Changes’ and Resizing would be complete.
Image – Resizing complete

Congrats! We have now resized the disk, continue using VirtualBox.

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Additional Resources :

User Manual (HTML version)
Ready to use Free VirtualBox Image out here.
Pre-Built Developer VMs – you can download, install, and experience as a single unit.
TOP 9 Business Specializations
ULTIMATE GUIDE to Coursera Specializations That Will Make Your Career Better (Over 100+ Specializations covered)
VirtualBox Tutorial – Installation of Ubuntu

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How to resize a VirtualBox vmdk file

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VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use.Here we look at how to resize a VirtualBox vmdk file

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Karthik

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Upnxtblog

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Karthik

Allo! My name is Karthik,experienced IT professional.Upnxtblog covers key technology trends that impacts technology industry.This includes Cloud computing,Blockchain,Machine learning & AI,Best mobile apps, Best tools/open source libs etc.,I hope you would love it and you can be sure that each post is fantastic and will be worth your time.