VPC 2007 - how to shrink the virtual hard disk size

I got the .vhd in the size of 7 GB.
However, it is too big to copy into my USB key as my USB key is FAT32 (got
the destination disk is full error).

My virtual machine has just installed XP and VS Studio, is there any way to
shrink the size of my virtual hard disk size?

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:38:50 +1100, "Alan T"
<> wrote:

>I got the .vhd in the size of 7 GB.
>However, it is too big to copy into my USB key as my USB key is FAT32 (got
>the destination disk is full error).
>
>My virtual machine has just installed XP and VS Studio, is there any way to
>shrink the size of my virtual hard disk size?
>

how much data is on the VHD? If you have 7gb, you can't make it
smaller unless you're compressing it with WinRAR or similar.

--
Cheers,
Steve Jain, Virtual Machine MVP
http://vpc.essjae.com/
http://smudj.wordpress.com/

Alan T wrote:
> I got the .vhd in the size of 7 GB.
> However, it is too big to copy into my USB key as my USB key is FAT32 (got
> the destination disk is full error).

Convert it to NTFS?
--
..NET: It's About Trust!
http://vfred.mvps.org

>> I got the .vhd in the size of 7 GB.
>> However, it is too big to copy into my USB key as my USB key is FAT32
>> (got
>> the destination disk is full error).
>
> Convert it to NTFS?

I tried to format my USB key but the only option was FAT 32 when I right
click the in Windows Explorer select the Format option.

Alan T wrote:
>>> I got the .vhd in the size of 7 GB.
>>> However, it is too big to copy into my USB key as my USB key is FAT32
>>> (got the destination disk is full error).
>>
>> Convert it to NTFS?
>
> I tried to format my USB key but the only option was FAT 32 when I right
> click the in Windows Explorer select the Format option.

Yeah, you have to drop into a CMD box...

C:\>convert /?
Converts FAT volumes to NTFS.

CONVERT volume /FS:NTFS [/V] [/CvtArea:filename] [/NoSecurity] [/X]

volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
/FS:NTFS Specifies that the volume is to be converted to NTFS.
/V Specifies that Convert should be run in verbose mode.
/CvtArea:filename
Specifies a contiguous file in the root directory to be
the place holder for NTFS system files.
/NoSecurity Specifies the converted files and directories security
settings to be accessible by everyone.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid.

C:\>convert L: /FS:NTFS /V
The type of the file system is FAT32.
Volume KINGSTON created 8/20/2009 7:01 AM
Volume Serial Number is 06CD-74BA
Windows is verifying files and folders...
0 percent completed.
100 percent completed.
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

3,997,040,640 bytes total disk space.
3,997,036,544 bytes available on disk.

4,096 bytes in each allocation unit.
975,840 total allocation units on disk.
975,839 allocation units available on disk.

Determining disk space required for file system conversion...
Total disk space: 3911008 KB
Free space on volume: 3903356 KB
Space required for conversion: 25838 KB
Converting file system
Conversion complete

C:\>

Only real downsides are that you won't be able to write to it on a Mac, or use it
all on 9x systems. But they're so cheap, if those are real needs, seems easy enough
to have a few lying about to choose from.
--
..NET: It's About Trust!
http://vfred.mvps.org