#1 2018-12-19 14:39:21

slv

Member

Registered: 2017-01-17

Posts: 40

Reclaiming space

Hello

I have VM with Bunsen on VirtualBOX. After some time I realized that my VM is big (I downloaded some files ...) and at the moment:
/dev/sda4       266G   28G  225G  11% /home
filesystem is ext4

I deleted files and at the moment its able to reclaim space from this partition.
But question is how to do that?

Regards
Slawek

Last edited by slv (2018-12-19 18:47:02)

damo

....moderator....

Registered: 2015-08-20

Posts: 6,734

Re: Reclaiming space

Does this help? How to resize a Virtual Drive

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slv

Member

Registered: 2017-01-17

Posts: 40

Re: Reclaiming space

nope ... I need to shrink this partition

damo

....moderator....

Registered: 2015-08-20

Posts: 6,734

Re: Reclaiming space

nope ... I need to shrink this partition

Note 2: You can not shrink a guest drive with VirtualBox due to the inherent danger of loosing data or making the guest non-bootable.

In that case you could back up any data you want, then create a VM of the size you need, and reinstall the guest OS.

There is also How To Reduce The Size Of VirtualBox VMs , as one example search result.

Last edited by damo (2018-12-19 20:08:11)

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ohnonot

...again

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 5,592

Re: Reclaiming space

doesn't virtualbox default to resizing the vm file dynamically?
have you checked if your vm files actually really do take up all that space on your host? because i think not.

THX1138

Member

Registered: 2019-01-14

Posts: 286

Re: Reclaiming space

Once you set the media type as fixed you cannot revert it to dynamic, however, if you begin by setting it to dynamic you can opt later to make it a fixed drive. If you look in the vbox under "global tools" then look at the entry for virtual media manager, you will see this is true, as there are only settings for resize if the disk is dynamic.

I doubt that gparted will work under vbox, I may give it a go hahahahah, if it does I will let you know

Oh I found this but it's from 2011
wonder if still relevant

Last edited by THX1138 (2019-01-24 15:02:41)

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Bearded_Blunder

Dodging A Bullet

From: Seat: seat0; vc7

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 1,146

Re: Reclaiming space

In that case you could back up any data you want, then create a VM of the size you need, and reinstall the guest OS.

In essence rather than exact detail:
Create a new (dynamic) vhd,  and add to the machine.
Partition as you'd like the new layout but with a separate partition for /home using gparted
backup /etc/apt/sources.list & /etc/apt/sources.list.d/bunsen.list + any other sources to somewhere under ~/
dpkg --get-selections >> software.list
copy all content /home to the new drive's /home (cp or rsync with the right options)
remove oversize vhd from machine
minimal netinstall of debian, manual partitioning.. just use it to pick mount points,
you already partitioned earlier using gparted, don't let (new) /home be formatted.
restore sources lists
use dpkg -set-selections to get software back

If all isn't well, start over another way, you've not damaged anything, just revert to using the oversize drive.
If all's good.. delete oversize virtual drive.

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