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virtual machine - VMware Workstation: how to reduce .vmdk maximum size

I have a 150 GB disk file (.vmdk, non pre-allocated) where my virtual machine is stored.


The file is currently 20 GB, but it is growing everyday, even though I'm not storing anything new in the guest file system.


I have been looking for hours for a way to reduce the maximum size of this disk, so that it never gets to 150 GB (I'd like to set the limit to 30 GB, and see what happens when the VM reaches this size).


What I have tried:



  • Converting the disk image with VMware Converter → this does not work, the tool only allows creating a full copy or a 'linked clone'.

  • Creating a new blank virtual machine of the desired size in order to copy the 20GB data onto the new .vmdk → I cannot find a way to perform the copy or even connect the new disk to my existing VM (so that I perform the copy using the guest OS).

  • Looking in the .vmx file to check if the maximum size was not set in plain text (it's not).


Although this task seems technically quite simple (there is no tricky shrinking involved, just a simple change of size limit), I'm really out of ideas here...


Is there a solution at all ?

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