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Toro
Asked: 2009-05-02 10:01:27 +0800 CST

Minimize VMware HD space with multiple snapshots

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What is the best way to minimize the HD space of VMware image when multiple snapshots are used. After taking the first snapshot VMware doesn't allow to shrink the virtual HD anymore.

I'm using the VMware Workstation 6.5 on Windows Vista.

windows vmware-workstation

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    If you take your snapshot when the VM is in the powered off state, the snapshots are only a few hundred KB. Unless you have a particular need for a snapshot of a running system, i.e., you have something in memory you want to preserve, take snapshots of only powered-off VMs. Snapshots of running VMs require as much disk space as your guest system's RAM (anywhere from a few hundred megabytes to gigabytes depending on how you sized your VM's RAM).

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  2. About the only think you can do is simply remove the snapshot.

    For the snapshot to be useful it must save the state of the hard disk exactly as it was when you took the snapshot. If don't need it, you can mark a virtual hard disk as exempt from snapshots.

    If you need to minimize space, it might be easier to simply stop the VM and actually backup and compress the VM and store it somewhere else.

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