Comments on: Compact a VirtualBox Windows Guest on Ubuntu Linux

By: eric

eric — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:36:28 +0000

Hi MikeF, I've not had any trouble with sdelete, although I have only used it on virtualized WinXP systems. I don't get the impression that it's been updated in years, but I don't think it really needs to be. This Microsoft Technet article seems to indicate that sdelete works with Windows 2000. I've also used Steve Gibson's SpinRite, although it does a lot more than sdelete and is meant more for hard disk maintenance.

By: MikeF

MikeF — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:13:12 +0000

sdelete appears to be badly broken – like other posts I’ve come across, it hangs up before completion in my Win2K VM.

Eraser and BleachBit do Not write zeros on unused file system blocks AFAIK.

Alternatives, anyone?

By: eric

eric — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:51:42 +0000

Okay, I've just upgraded to VirtualBox 2.2.2 and the modifyvdi command is deprecated and replaced by the modifyhd command.. To run the VDI compact command in step g. above: Type ‘VBoxManage modifyhd xxxxx.vdi compact' where xxxxx.vdi represents the filename of the virtual disk you’d like to compact. If you get an error regarding the disk location, you may wish to use the full path & file in place of the xxxxx.vdi above. (ex. VBoxManage modifyhd /home/eric/.VirtualBox/VDI/WinXP_Pro.vdi compact)

By: eric

eric — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:49:54 +0000

I’ve just tried to run this procedure after upgrading VirtualBox to the latest version and it’s not working.

Looks like Sun changed the command line ‘modifyvdi’ command to ‘modifyhd’ and has temporarily removed the ability to compact the disk.

By: eric

eric — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:47:27 +0000

Hi Jeff,

I’ve really not had any experience with that, but would be curious to know if you find anything.

By: Jeff McCune

Jeff McCune — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:10:38 +0000

Do you recommend any tools for cleaning out things like the swap file before sealing a VM guest with sysprep?

By: Ann Arbor Web Site Graphics Design

Ann Arbor Web Site Graphics Design — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:57:52 +0000

Ah storage space is like a cupboard, you can get in a lot there but never enough and the room is cluttered!

By: eric

eric — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:00:54 +0000

No problem. I ran it yesterday on my main WinXP virtual machine and the VDI went from 8.3 to 7GB. Let me know how it works for you.

By: Sean B.

Sean B. — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:30:20 +0000

Interesting–I haven’t thought of ever compacting my vdi files. I think I’ll give this a try now that I see my HD space ever dwindling (mostly due to VirtualBox in the first place!)

Thanks for posting the instructions