How to Increase Hard Disk Space in VMware Workstation 15/14/12

In this article, we will examine the steps to expand/increase the disk capacity/size of a virtual machine installed on VMware Workstation.

How to Increase Hard Disk Space in VMware Workstation 15/14/12

How to Increase Hard Disk Space of Virtual Machine on VM Workstation/Player

Users with advanced computer knowledge are familiar with the VMware Workstation virtualization program. You may need to increase the hard disk size of virtual machines installed on VMware Workstation when you need them.

It is a very simple process to increase the disk size of the virtual machine installed on the VMware Workstation virtualization program. In our previous articles, we examined How to Clone in a VM and How to Snapshot a VM.

In this article, we will take steps to increase the disk size in VMware. On Windows, Linux, macOS operating systems installed on VMware software, HDD expansion can be done easily.

Before expanding the C: drive of the virtual machine, the VMware must not have Snapshot. If you have previously received a Snapshot, you must delete it from the Snapshot manager.

How to Configure Virtual Machine Disk Size on VMware Workstation 12/14/15

In all versions of VM Workstation, the steps for increasing disk space are the same. Follow the steps below in order to increase the C: drive area of ​​your VM.

You can also download VMware Workstation 15 from here to your Windows computer …

   Step 1

After running VMware Workstation, open the virtual machine where you want to expand the HDD. Then click on the Hard Disk option as in the image below.

Configuring Hard Disk

   Step 2

In the Virtual Machine Settings, click the Expand button.

Expand Disk Capacity

   Step 3

In the Expand Disk Capacity window, type the amount in Maximum Disk Size (GB) if you want to increase the size of the virtual machine’s C: drive.

Configuring Maximum Disk Size

   Step 4

After specifying the size amount, click the Expand button.

Expanding Virtual HDD

   Step 5

Expanding the virtual HDD of the VMware virtual machine …

Expanding Virtual Disk

   Step 6

The expansion of VMware disk capacity has completed successfully. The warning in the image below tells us to set the HDD on the operating system. Now click OK to continue.

Disk Expanded Successfully

   Step 7

Click the OK button to save the setting.

Virtual Machine Settings

   Step 8

Start the virtual machine.

Running the Virtual Machine

   Step 9

On My Computer, you can see that the size does not increase on the C: drive. That’s why you need to open Disk Management.

Windows 7 VM

   Step 10

Click the Right Button / Manage button on my computer.

Manage This Computer

   Step 11

Click Disk Management and then right click on the (C:) drive.

Disk Management

   Step 12

In the window that opens, click Extend Volume.

Expand Volume

   Step 13

The Wizard window is opened. Continue by pressing the Next button.

Volume Expansion Wizard

   Step 14

On the Selected tab, you can see the amount of HDD that you can increase. Select Disk 0 to continue.

Selecting the HDD to Configure Size

   Step 15

After increasing the disk size of the virtual machine on the VM, click Finish.

Closing Volume Wizard

   Step 16

As you can see in the image below, the process to increase disk size has completed successfully.

Windows 7 Disk Management

   Step 17

You can check the C: drive in the following image that it has expanded.

C:\ Properties

   Video 1

You can watch the video below to configure the C: drive size of a virtual machine running on VM Workstation, and you can also subscribe to our YouTube channel to support us.

   Video 2

You can watch the video below to increase the HDD size of Windows 10 virtual machine running on VM Workstation!

   Final Word


In this article, we have examined step by step how to increase the disk size of a virtual machine in the VM Workstation virtualization program installed on Windows 10 PC. The only thing you should remember when increasing the HDD size is that you need to delete the snapshot of the virtual machine. Thanks for following us!

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3 Comments
  1. Khalejha 14 October 2020

    Perfect!!

    Reply
  2. Mehdi 22 November 2021

    Hi
    many thanks for your great post & help in above post, very usefull sir;
    BR

    Reply
    • Tolga Bagci 22 November 2021

      You’re welcome!

      Reply
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