听说VMWare虚拟出来的硬盘会随着使用的时间变长而慢慢变大，而绝不会再变小， 我怕是它每次申请的空间没有释放，不知道是不是真的，如果是真的的话可太让我失望啦~~~ 我自己装了个Linux，用到现在，原本2G多的。。。现在已经3G多了。。。。所以怕怕
有谁知道么？
答：
在linux下你需要以root身份运行vmware-toolbox以确保有权限整理整个虚拟磁盘 帮助里是这么说的 In a Linux or FreeBSD guest operating system, to prepare virtual disks for shrinking, you should run VMware Tools as the root user. This way, you ensure the whole virtual disk is shrunk. Otherwise, if you shrink disks as a nonroot user you cannot wipe the parts of the virtual disk that require root-level permissions. 具体的你在manual.chm里查找一下shrink关键字就行了 具体过程的帮助是配图的 给的是winxp环境下的 不过linux里的界面也是一样的 我以前虚拟过RedHat
windows下也是可以减滴，前提是你要安装了VMtools，进入系统双击右下角的VMtools图标，在里面寻找shrink,其它的按说明一路操作喽！
转自：http://blog.163.com/howl_prowler/blog/static/26619715200902041759544/
注：本人的是win7+VM7.1+centos，通过上述方法，硬盘的空间确实变大了，还是相当有用的。
如果上面还看不懂，可以参照下面---援引自VMware官网（http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_disk_shrink.html）：
这里经常有人会出现，不能shrink的情况，下面列出了很多，但大多数出在有虚拟机的快照，这样是不行的，看下面标红的地方。正所谓鱼与熊掌不能兼得啊！！！~
Shrinking Virtual Disks
If you have a virtual disk that grows as data is added, you can shrink it as described in this section. If you allocated all the space for your virtual disk at the time you created it, you cannot shrink it.
Note: The maximum benefit occurs when you defragment a virtual disk before you shrink it. See Defragmenting Virtual Disks.
Shrinking a virtual disk reclaims unused space in the virtual disk. If there is empty space in the disk, this process reduces the amount of space the virtual disk occupies on the host drive.
Shrinking a virtual disk is a convenient way to convert a virtual disk to the format supported by Workstation. Virtual disks created in the new format can be recognized only by VMware Workstation 3.0 and higher.
This section describes the following topics:
Restrictions and Requirements
Shrinking requires free disk space on the host equal to the size of the virtual disk you are shrinking.
Shrinking applies only to virtual disks. You cannot shrink physical disks or CD-ROMs.
The shrink feature is not enabled if the virtual machine
- Contains a snapshot
- Is a parent of a linked clone
- Is a linked clone
The shrink feature is not enabled for a virtual machine if any of its virtual disks are
- Preallocated when created
- Not used in independent-persistent mode
- Legacy disks that are not in persistent mode
- Booted as independent disks
Note: You can change the mode of a virtual disk before the virtual machine is powered on. See Excluding Disks from Snapshots for a discussion of independent disks.
The Shrinking Process
Shrinking a disk is a two-step process:
- In the first step, called wiping, VMware Tools reclaims all unused portions of disk partitions (such as deleted files) and prepares them for shrinking. Wiping takes place in the guest operating system.
- The second step is the shrinking process itself, which takes place on the host. Workstation reduces the size of the disk\'s files by the amount of disk space reclaimed in the wipe process.
When a virtual machine is powered on, you shrink its virtual disks from the VMware Tools control panel. You cannot shrink virtual disks if a snapshot exists. To remove the snapshot if one exists, choose VM > Snapshot > Snapshot Manager > Delete. See Unsupported and Disabled Partitions.
In a Linux or FreeBSD guest operating system, to prepare virtual disks for shrinking, you should run VMware Tools as the root user. This way, you ensure the whole virtual disk is shrunk. Otherwise, if you shrink disks as a nonroot user you cannot wipe the parts of the virtual disk that require root-level permissions.
To shrink a virtual disk:
1. Launch the control panel.
- Windows guest — double-click the VMware Tools icon in the system tray, or choose Start > Settings > Control Panel, then double-click VMware Tools.
- Linux or FreeBSD guest — become root (su -), then run vmware-toolbox.
2. Click the Shrink tab.
3. Select the virtual disks you want to shrink, then click Prepare to Shrink.
A dialog box tracks the progress of the wiping process.
Note: If you deselect some partitions, the whole disk is still shrunk. However, those partitions are not wiped for shrinking, and the shrink process does not reduce the size of the virtual disk as much as it could with all partitions selected.
4. Click Yes when VMware Tools finishes wiping the selected disk partitions.
A dialog box tracks the progress of the shrinking process. Shrinking disks may take considerable time.
5. Click OK to finish.
Unsupported and Disabled Partitions
In some configurations, it is not possible to shrink virtual disks. If your virtual machine uses such a configuration, the Shrink tab displays information explaining why you cannot shrink your virtual disks.
For example, you cannot shrink a virtual disk if
- You preallocated disk space when you created the disk. Preallocating disk space is the default option for both typical and custom virtual machine creation paths.
- The virtual machine has any snapshots. To delete a snapshot, choose VM > Snapshot > Snapshot Manager > Delete.
- The virtual machine contains physical disks.
- The virtual disk is not an independent disk in persistent mode.
- The virtual disk is stored on a CD-ROM.
