Problem...
The host has 78 GB free disk space.
The vmdk file is 73.5 GB now, but it is configured as a 100 GB disk
I need to add at least 50 GB to the configuration of the vmdk disk.
If there will be a copy of the virtual disk created during the resize process then it will get very close to the physical limit of my host disk.
So it seems like a risky operation.
During the resize, can one not target the copy disk to another drive (temporary big USB storage for example) or will this not work/be too slow?
Is this gonna work and how long will it take?
EDIT:
I was in a rush and forgot the main issue I am thinking about:
Since the virtual disk drive is actually a file on the host system, this file should contain some size information as a header of sorts utilized by VMWare Workstation when it simulates the disk drive through this file, right?
Then my take on this resizing business is that somehow it should be possible to modify the size parameter and this way add unallocated space to the existing virtual drive file (vmdk).
After all it is just a file on the host file system and its content is interpreted by software, so why should it not be possible simply to modify the vmdk file such that its simulated size is changed to a bigger value while keeping the existing partition data intact???
If this was possible then the rest would be moot, just change the size parameter and then open the virtual machine and expand the existing partition to fill the now bigger drive