I have used the default settings for a WinXP install - everything is going pretty well, but the disk is marked as 4096Mb (created as an expanding disk). The problem is that the disk isn't expanding... After installing Office I have no space, and further installers fail. Do the disks expand, or is there a way of forcing the disk to expand?
Well, actually "Expanding" does not mean it has no limit at all, - it means that it will not allocate all the space it needs * immediately *. So it will not expand above 4096 if it was marked as 4096 maximum.
I think by 'expanding' they mean the disk file will be only as large as needed but then grows (up to the 4096Mb you defined) as needed. In otherwords, it isn't a way to make your disk bigger as needed. If you defined 4096 then that is as big as it can get.
i think it means that you'd be able to expand the disk using a tool that they'll be releasing later on maybe with the final release
If I'm not mistaken, when you create a drive as an expanding drive and give it a certain size, that's the size it will expand up to. It starts smaller and grows up to that size as needed. I could be way off base, but for some reason that's the understanding I had of the expanding feature. EDIT: Sorry, I took so long to post this that I see it's already well covered...
Expanding disk Ok, so now we all know what expanding disk means. However, I think the bigger point/issue is how do we make it expand once its reached full size. When I created my new install I thought it would expand automagically and now I've already reached the 4096MB limit and I'm stuck. Apparently there are some disk tools to re-size the disk but they are not incl with the OS X version. We need to know how to get past this issue, otherwise, there are going to be a lot of people calling up Microsoft to have them clear their reg key in their database so we can re-install XP. Thx.
Your thinking of "expanding" as meaning it will grow beyond the 4096 when it needs to. In fact, this is not what an expanding disk does. Think of it this way: 1. You create a new VM and define the disk as 4096MB. 2. You install say, Windows 2000. 3. Windows 2000 install is a total of ~ 800MB (for argument sake) 4. Go look at the actual disk file in Finder (sorry not sure where to tell you it is off the top of my head) 5. You should see that it is ~ 800MB (not 4096MB) 6. As you install software in the VM, the disk will grow....install Office as an example 7. Go look at the disk file in Finder again and you'll see its ~ 1.1GB 8. Keep installing additional software in the VM, when you get to 4096 worth, your out of disk space So the purpose of an expanding disk is so that you don't end up with a 4096MB file on your Mac from the start. Hope this made sense....
I just re-read your message and I see you did understand what expanding meant - sorry about that but hopefully my post helps others to understand. But to your point, there should be a way to make a VM's disk larger if you needed to. As I understand it, even VMWare and similar products don't give you that ability. What they do give you is the abilitiy to add another disk to the VM. Might be a good selling point for parallels!
