David-B Posted September 30, 2017 Share Posted September 30, 2017 I am running macOS in a VMware Virtual Machine on Windows 10, and would like to reduce the size of my VMDK. The VMDK was originally for an older version of macOS, and I wanted a clean start, so I wiped the virtual drive using these instructions. After a complete reinstall, I want to reduce the size of the VMDK since so much space is being wasted even though there's nothing on the drive at all other than the operating system. When I try using VMware to defrag and compress the disk though, I immediately get a message saying that the process was completed, but the disk size remains the same. How can I get the compression process to actually work? I am using VMware Workstation Pro 14, if that makes a difference. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/327859-compress-macos-vmdk/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjg61 Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 To shrink your VMware macOS virtual disk, execute the following command from the Terminal app: sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Tools/vmware-tools-cli disk shrink / Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/327859-compress-macos-vmdk/#findComment-2505752 Share on other sites More sharing options...
David-B Posted October 1, 2017 Author Share Posted October 1, 2017 To shrink your VMware macOS virtual disk, execute the following command from the Terminal app: sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Tools/vmware-tools-cli disk shrink / Okay, so do this, and then I should be able to do the defrag and compress on the host? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/327859-compress-macos-vmdk/#findComment-2505767 Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJTagy Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 I doubt you will defrag the file system. This will help recover and compress unused space. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/308367-how-to-shrink-os-x-vmdk/ Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/327859-compress-macos-vmdk/#findComment-2505973 Share on other sites More sharing options...
David-B Posted October 1, 2017 Author Share Posted October 1, 2017 I doubt you will defrag the file system. This will help recover and compress unused space. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/308367-how-to-shrink-os-x-vmdk/ Yeah, I was wondering if perhaps the defrag would not work since I'm using macOS High Sierra which means the VM uses APFS. As for the link you provided, I tried doing it, but it did not work. Perhaps this is because I was booted in to recovery mode. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/327859-compress-macos-vmdk/#findComment-2506279 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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