{"id":10040,"date":"2009-11-25T19:42:20","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T19:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/index.php\/2009\/11\/using-vmm-to-convert-vhd-types\/"},"modified":"2009-11-25T19:42:20","modified_gmt":"2009-11-25T19:42:20","slug":"using-vmm-to-convert-vhd-types","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aidanfinn.com\/?p=10040","title":{"rendered":"Using VMM To Convert VHD Types"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most common queries I used to get on my old blog was \u201chow do I convert Hyper-V disks?\u201d.\u00a0 Converting a VHD is easy enough.\u00a0 In the Hyper-V console you shut down the VM, edit the disk, select a location for the new VHD.\u00a0 Once that\u2019s done you can rename the old disk and grant it\u2019s old name to the new disk.\u00a0 Start up the VM and it\u2019s using the new disk.\u00a0 Remember to remove the old disk to save disk space.<\/p>\n

Before you even think about this you need to be sure you have enough space for the new disk of the desired type to be created.\u00a0 How much space will it need?\u00a0 Check how much data is on that disk (in the VM\u2019s OS) and allow for another GB or two to be safe.\u00a0 This applies to both the Hyper-V console and VMM.<\/p>\n

VMM is a bit more elegant.\u00a0 You shut down your VM, hopefully from the OS itself or via the IC\u2019s, rather than just turn it off.\u00a0 Then you edit the properties of the VM and navigate to the disk in question.<\/p>\n

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Here I have opened up the VM that I wanted to work on and I\u2019ve navigated to the disk in question.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fixed VHD and I want to replace it with a dynamic VHD without losing my data.\u00a0 You can see in the right-hand side that there is a tick box to convert the disk.\u00a0 I ticked this and clicked on OK.<\/p>\n

Notice that there is also a tick box for expand the VHD?\u00a0 That\u2019s how we can grant more space to a VM.\u00a0 Remember to follow that up by running DISKPART in the VM to expand the volume.\u00a0 That\u2019s nothing to do with the convert task but I thought I\u2019d mention it.<\/p>\n

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Once I clicked on OK the job runs.\u00a0 How long this will take depends on the amount of data we\u2019re dealing with.<\/p>\n

VMM is pretty clever here.\u00a0 It will convert the disk and then swap out the old disk with the new disk.\u00a0 The old disk is removed.\u00a0 This is a much less manual task than using the Hyper-V console.<\/p>\n

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Once the job is done you should check out your VM.\u00a0 You can see above that the disk is now a dynamic disk.\u00a0 And notice how much space I\u2019ve saved?\u00a0 I\u2019ve gone from 20GB down to 12.5GB.\u00a0 I\u2019ve just saved my employer 40% of the cost to store that VM with a couple of mouse clicks while waiting for my dinner.\u00a0 That goes to back up my recent blog post about simpler and more cost effective storage<\/a>.\u00a0 And like I said then, I\u2019ve lost nothing in performance because I am running Windows Server 2008 R2<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most common queries I used to get on my old blog was \u201chow do I convert Hyper-V disks?\u201d.\u00a0 Converting a VHD is easy enough.\u00a0 In the Hyper-V console you shut down the VM, edit the disk, select a location for the new VHD.\u00a0 Once that\u2019s done you can rename the old disk … Continue reading “Using VMM To Convert VHD Types”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[181,196],"class_list":["post-10040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hyper-v","tag-hyper-v","tag-vmm"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t