How to Compress a VMware Disk
When you create a virtual machine in VMware, the machine has a dynamic virtual hard disk by default. It begins as a very small file, and grows as you copy data and install programs on the virtual machine. If you delete data, however, the virtual disk does not shrink because constant changes in the virtual hard disk's file size could lead to fragmentation and poor virtual machine performance. If you have removed data from the hard disk of a virtual machine, use the Compact function in VMware Player to shrink the size of the virtual hard disk on your computer.
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Instructions
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Launch VMware Player from your computer's desktop or "Start" menu. The left panel of the window shows a list of the virtual machines that you have created.
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Right-click the name of the virtual machine that you want to compress, and select "Virtual Machine Settings."
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Click "Hard Disk" in the device column on the left side of the window.
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Click the "Utilities" button on the right side of the window, then click "Compact." This automatically compresses the virtual disk, removing the empty space from the file.
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Click "OK" when the message "The disk was successfully compacted" appears, then click "OK" again to return to the main menu for VMware Player.
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