Shutdown and poweroff Windows Vista.
Delete all your snapshots from snapshot manager by visting VM > Snapshot Manger. Since you are going to resize you virtual disk, these snapshots going to create a problem for you.
Backup your entire virtual machine. My VM is located at /share/vms/WindowsVista. So I made a backup:
# cp -arv /share/vms/WindowsVista /safe/path/to/vm/05062009/
OR
# rsync /share/vms/WindowsVista [email protected]:/.dumps/vms/05062009/
Another option is you can clone your guest in VMware, if you want to keep the existing virtual machine configuration by visiting VM > Clone option.
Open shell prompt and type the following command:
# /usr/bin/vmware-vdiskmanager -x {diskSize}GB yourvm.vmdk
If you are using Windows operating host system change directory to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation or add this to your PATH settings. Click on Start > Run and type cmd to open Windows shell prompt:
vmware-vdiskmanager -x {diskSize}GB "c:\vm\yourvm.vmdk"
OR use full path as follows
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager -x {diskSize}GB "c:\vm\yourvm.vmdk"
Linux host example:
# /usr/bin/vmware-vdiskmanager -x 32GB /share/vms/WindowsVista/vista.vmdk
Windows host example:
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-vdiskmanager -x 32GB "c:\vm\centos.vmdk"
Now, disk size is increased but operating system will only show 16GB used and 16GB unused. To add new 16GB to C: (i.e. expand the size of a a virtual disk), use GParted. You will need to use a third-party utility such as GParted to resize the expanded partitions. The GParted application is the GNOME partition editor for creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions. GParted is a live Linux based CD. Download latest version here or use wget command as follows:
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://nchc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/gparted/gparted-live-0.4.5-2.iso
Start Vmware
Select your VM (such as Windows Vista). Click on VM menu > Select Properties > Select CD / DVD > Use ISO Image > Click on Browse > Select /tmp/gparted-live-0.4.5-2.iso > Ok > Save.
Start your virtual machine. Press F2 to visit Vmware BIOS menu. Make sure boot option order is set as follows (CDROM drive should be the first boot device):
Hit [F10] function key to save and exit BIOS menu. Within minutes you will boot into Gparted Live CD.
Select your disk (such as /dev/sda1).
Click on Resize/Move button.
Set a new size to maximum size (it is displayed on the screen itself).
Finally, hit Resize/Move button to start the process:
Depending on the amount (disk size and storage type) and type (resize or move) operation resize may tae a long time. After sometime Gparted will give out the final confirmation about disk resize operation (you must not get any error on screen):
Click on exit button shutdown Gparted.
Make sure the virtual machine configured to start from a hard disk by pressing F2 key. Save and exit BIOS. Once done, you should able to boot into Windows vista (chkdsk may run at startup). Just verify your disk space: