Announcements

VHD Expander is now VHD Resizer

2007-02-28T21:38:00Z

Based on feedback from folks who have downloaded the Expander and our own changing needs here in the toolkit we have made some changes to the VHDExpander. First off it is now called the VHDResizer and it will do some of the things the new name implies.

The tool will now check the partitions within the VHD and provide you with sizing options (displayed as a slider) which start at the end of your partition and go up to 127 GB. This means you can technically shrink your VHD if you do some preparation work. The preparation needed is to shrink your partition, the tool will not shrink your partition for you, we want to leave that up to you (look for David to post some steps on this). However if you previously expanded your VHD and determined later that the size was too large you can now shrink that size back down if you have not already extended your partition.

Everything else from the expander remains the same. VhdResize will resize Microsoft's VHD files and will also convert between Fixed and Dynamic file types. This is a sector by sector copy operation from one size/type to the other and the source file remains unaltered. The .NET 2.0 framework is still required.

As always let us know what works and what doesn't here.

VHD Expander Available

2007-01-18T06:50:00Z

Here is another tool for the toolkit. This is for those of you who use Microsoft's virtualization tools. We believe you can achieve better performance using a fixed disk size rather than a dynamic disk size in Virtual Server and Virtual PC. The trouble comes when you need your fixed disk to be bigger. This is one solution.

VhdExpand will expand Microsoft's VHD format files and will also convert between Fixed and Dynamic file types. This is a sector by sector copy operation from one size/type to the other and the source file remains unaltered. VhdExpand requires the Microsoft .Net 2.0 framework available via Windows Update.

To use the tool:

Run the .exe
Browse to the image file you want to expand
Select a name and destination for your new image
Set the size you want to expand to and the type (Fixed or Dynamic)
Hit expand, all this process does is expand the size of the virtual drive but not any partions within
Once expanded if you previously had a partition you will need to use "diskpart" for NTFS systems or "fdisk" in linux to expand the partition to recognize the new size.

Note: When expanding to a fixed disk type the tool must allocate the disk space prior to expanding. There is no visual indicator during this process, the "expand" button will be unavailable and the progress bar will start once the tool begins to expand the image.

VMDK to VHD Converter Available

2006-11-20T21:52:00Z

We have made our first tool; the VMDK to VHD file converter, available on our downloads page. This is a file conversion tool it will not make any modifications to the source image such as uninstalling VMTools etc... but it will leave your source VMDK un-touched so you can continue to use it.

We use it test and move VMWare images and appliances into Virtual Server and Virtual PC. Please use it and abuse it, let us know if you have any questions or problems in the forums. The only pre-requisite is .NET Framework 2.0. We do not have a linux version at the moment.

Update: 1.0.13: 2/13/2006

Resolves problem with VMDK's produced with VMWare Converter